Privacy Blog

"Friends don’t let friends get spied on.' – Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation and longtime advocate of privacy in technology.

Email Security

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How to Switch to Encrypted Email: The Ultimate Guide to Everyday Email Encryption

Are you using Gmail or Yahoo Mail or HotMail or Outlook.com or some other free email service hosted on the site of some multi-billion dollar corporation? If so, your email messages are being monitored and your personal information is available to corporations, governments, and other spies. In fact, Google admits that they do read (by means of automated software) all the emails that you send or receive via Gmail—mostly to […]

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Encrypted Email Service ProtonMail is Being Blocked in Turkey

I have written before about encrypted email provider Proton Mail. In fact, I used Proton Mail last week when I was in China as it was the only email service I could find that was not blocked by the Great Firewall of China. (I bet that changes soon!) Now the government of Turkey isn’t allowing its citizens access to the privacy-enabled email service. See https://protonmail.com/blog/turkey-online-censorship-bypass/ for the details, unless you […]

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Use Encipher.it to Quickly and Easily Encrypt Your E-mail Messages

Encipher.it is an amazing service. It secures your email messages and other data so that none of the bad guys can read it, it protects your work or personal files from identity thieves, it allows you to share confidential information easily with friends or co-workers, and it is available free of charge. What is there to dislike about Encipher.it? Encipher.it offers several methods of use. In its easiest-to-use form, simply […]

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You Absolutely Must Secure Your Home Router and You Probably Can’t

Your in-home router/modem may be the most insecure piece of hardware you own. Luckily, there is an easy fix although it isn’t cheap for many people: replace your present router’s internal software with a security-focused product, such as the free and open code, DD-WRT. The expense arises from the fact that most routers cannot easily replace the internal software. If you are one of the majority who owns a non-modifiable […]

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Buggy Microsoft Outlook Sending Encrypted S/MIME Emails With Plaintext Copy For Months

Do you use Microsoft Outlook to send supposedly-encrypted S/MIME email messages? If so, for at least last 6 months, your messages have been sent in both encrypted and unencrypted forms, exposing all your secret and sensitive communications to potential eavesdroppers. If you are using Microsoft Outlook, you need to read an article in The Hacker News at http://bit.ly/2gbfpvW before you send your next message! Comment: There are several better, more […]

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Privacy Implications of Email Tracking

“What happens when you open an email and allow it to display embedded images and pixels? You may expect the sender to learn that you’ve read the email, and which device you used to read it. But in a new paper we find that privacy risks of email tracking extend far beyond senders knowing when emails are viewed. Opening an email can trigger requests to tens of third parties, and […]

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The Only Safe Email is Text-Only Email

Interesting article: “The real issue is that today’s web-based email systems are electronic minefields filled with demands and enticements to click and engage in an increasingly responsive and interactive online experience. It’s not just Gmail, Yahoo mail and similar services: Desktop-computer-based email programs like Outlook display messages in the same unsafe way. Simply put, safe email is plain-text email — showing only the plain words of the message exactly as […]

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ProtonMail now includes Bitcoin Support

ProtonMail is a popular and highly-respected email provider that offers excellent privacy. I have written before about the advantages of ProtonMail. See http://bit.ly/2wfhD6G for a list of my past articles about ProtonMail. Now ProtonMail has introduced a new feature that apparently has been requested for some time. In order to improve privacy even more, customers may now pay for ProtonMail accounts by using Bitcoin, the semi-anonymous (see the footnote below) […]

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Use Guerrilla Mail to Create a Disposable Temporary E-Mail Address

Avoid spam and stay safe – use a disposable email address! Yes, using a one-time email address can save you from a lifetime of spam mail, questionable “unbelievable offers,” and similar junk mail. Even better, using a temporary e-mail address can hide your activities from government spies or from your ex-wife’s attorney. They can’t track you if they don’t know it is you. Actually, anyone can create a temporary e-mail […]

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ProtonMail Professional – Encrypted Email for Organizations

This blog has always focused on privacy problems and solutions for individuals. However, many organizations also have a need for privacy. ProtonMail, already well known for private email services for individuals, has now introduced a related product for corporations, non-profits, and any other organizations that feel a need for privacy. You can read the announcement for ProtonMail Professional at: https://protonmail.com/blog/encrypted-email-for-organizations/.

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