April 29, 2014
Santiago, Chile
Nice email you’ve got there… The US government’s zeal to destroy every
semblance of personal privacy has just reached another level.
On Friday, a US federal judge in New York ordered that Internet service
providers must turn over customer emails and other digital content
requested by any government agency through a warrant—even if the data
is stored overseas.
Judge James Francis has ordered Microsoft to turn over customer’s
information associated with an email account that was being held on a
server in Ireland—including the customer’s name, contents of all emails
sent and received by the account, online session times and durations,
and any credit card number or bank account used for payment.
Just as it is in tax matters, the US government has unilaterally
extended its powers to access US citizens’ digital data at will
anywhere in the world.
This is unprecedented and shocking.
Your email and your digital assets in general are your private
property.
An email is even more than a person’s wallet or purse today. It’s a
gateway to almost all aspects of our life.
Just think what sort of details and personal information are accessed
via our email—all our online accounts, bank and other financial
information, business details, private health information, personal
family information… etc. The list is only getting longer each day.
We’ve learnt explicitly last year that the US government has a complete
disregard for private property and privacy, and is breaking its own
laws by monitoring peoples' communications and actions online.
Now they’re legally allowed to go after their citizens’ most private
information—anywhere in the world.
The case for securing your email and other digital assets can’t be made
stronger. Luckily there are a few options that exist.
Option 1: Move to a
foreign email provider.
This ruling applies to US Internet providers such as Google, Microsoft,
and Yahoo, and by moving to an email hosting service offshore you can
easily bypass it since the US government has limited jurisdiction over
foreign companies.
There’s an explosion of these, as many companies are leaving the US and
are being set up abroad. Neomailbox is an example
that is based in Switzerland.
Option 2: Use a
‘zero-knowledge’ secure email provider.
‘Zero-knowledge’ means that your email is encrypted on the provider’s
servers and only you have access to it—they don’t have the decryption
keys. So even if the company receives a warrant to hand over your email
data to the government, all they would be able to deliver is encrypted
gibberish.
Think of it like a cloud storage service such as Mega, as opposed to
Dropbox. Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft etc. are just like Dropbox—they have
access to your data, and if push comes to shove, they will hand it
over.
Option 3: Use your
own encryption.
You can encrypt your email yourself and ensure that your communications
and all your data contained within your email account are secure.
A few months ago we’ve put together an Email
Encryption Black Paper that gives you step-by-step
instructions, including screenshots, for how to encrypt your email
yourself—at no cost and in just a few steps.
This is a very important topic and we are happy to share this with
everyone so you too can take your privacy and personal matters back in
your own hands.
You can download the
Black Paper here.
If you care
about this issue – and you should – I encourage you to pass this
information along.
To your freedom,
Simon Black
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