How-to Booklet » 7. How to keep your Internet communication private

Further reading

Submitted by admin on Fri, 11/21/2008 - 23:50
  • To learn more about faking an email identity, refer to the Spoofing section of the Digital Security and Privacy for Human Rights Defenders book.
  • In addition to the Riseup and Thunderbird Hands-on Guides, there are a number of websites that explain how to use your email program with various popular email providers while leaving a copy of your messages on the mail server:
  • There is a well-known attack on the security of SSL encryption known as the Man in the Middle attack.
  • The Gmail Privacy Policy, which you must accept when creating a Gmail account, explains that, "Google maintains and processes your Gmail account and its contents to provide the Gmail service to you and to improve our services." In fact, all email providers scan your messages, to some extent, so that they can offer anti-spam services and other such features. Gmail goes a bit futher, however, in order to provide 'targeted advertising' based on the actual content of your email. This could be dangerous if information stored by Google were to be intentionally or accidentally exposed.
  • A series of interviews in 2008 addressed the privacy and encryption policies of several major instant messaging services.
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