Different Slants

Warning: The following post meets the definition of infomercial.

For many of us, email has become part of our daily lives. It has become an essential tool for communications with others around the world. The things we discuss through email are often the same things we might otherwise discuss through postal mail or on the telephone. Email has also become a source of irritation because some people has chosen to abuse it by sending mountains of spam. (Many more people are unwitting accomplices and don’t even know it.)

What most people do not realize is that sending an email message is like sending a postcard. It can be easily read by any number of people who can access it by way of it passing through their equipment or, who just happen to be connected to the same “wires” it travels along on its path from sender to recipient. Most people who could read others’ emails don’t but the few who do, are likely to do so for the worst reasons.

You are probably saying to yourself, “I don’t care if somebody reads my email. I have nothing to hide.” But just because you are not doing anything illegal, immoral, or shameful, does not mean you would be comfortable if you found your messages copied on the walls of a public restroom. Do you ever send email that includes financial information, including credit card numbers, purchase orders or confirmations? Do you ever use email to make or discuss travel plans or talk about medical issues? Do you ever talk about anything personal (that you would not write on the back of postcard)? If so, email privacy should be important to you.

Your emails are subject to being intercepted and/or read in a number of places. The most vulnerable place, the one you have the most control over, is your own computer. Securing your own computer is important but non-trivial. A link to a starting place for information is given below. For now, be aware that if you do not pay attention to the security of your own computer, you may be the unwitting accomplice responsible for sending all those spam emails everyone hates.

When you send an email from your computer, it is transmitted over the Internet to your email server. In most cases, it is transmitted as clear text. That means any junior high school kid (and a number of highly trained adults) knows how to intercept and read your message as it flies by their computers. If your Internet connection comes through your cable TV provider, you are particularly vulnerable to this.

Once it is on your email server, it is stored, again, as clear text. Anyone with access to that server, with or without proper judicial oversight, can read your emails. This includes the techies who run the machine.

From your email server, your message may be passed to one or more other servers or, to your intended recipient. Each time, it is usually sent as clear text that can be read by anyone on that wire who cares to.

When it finally arrives at its destination, it is subject to the same vulnerabilities it was on your own computer. If the person on the other end is not taking care of security on their own computer, your email could wind up anywhere.

So, its a dangerous email universe. What is an ordinary citizen to do about it? (This is where we get into the commercial part of this posting.)

First of all, no matter what else you do, learn about making your own computer secure. Next, consider an alternative email service provider. Novo Ordo, (which coincidentally, is owned by the same company that sponsors this website) offers a private email service called “Sub Rosa” that can go a long way toward keeping your emails out of the hands of others. Their service uses encrypted links to and from their server to prevent snooping. Emails stored on their server are also encrypted to keep out their own techies and those other busy bodies. (You know who I mean.)

The Novo Ordo website also has information and links to other sites (including their competitors) with information on securing your own computer and other privacy issues. Sub Rosa is not free, but it is cheap. More importantly, it is secure.