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Feedback ForumAre you confident in the security of your personal emails?Submissions for this question are no longer being accepted. Previously submitted comments appear below. Comments may have been edited for content or space. Poster: Craig Payne Comment: Sure email is vulnerable to scrurtinization by the government. I think the government wants everyone to feel that way so we won't communicate with one another over sensitive matters. It's a shame that freedom of speech has a penalty tagged on to it. So what else is new? I hope everyone keeps emaling her or his feelings. Poster: Melanie B. Comment: I didn't know the technology to read every email existed until I saw your show. So, I thought that probably, no one would be looking at mine. Now I'm afraid to type out my full last name on this comment, even though I know my ISP address is as personal as my name. Poster: Deedie Pearson Comment: I am concerned that we are loosing our basic right to privacy. Spying on American people is not acceptable. This what Hitler and Stalin did to their people. Poster: steve burge Comment: Like I tell my crazy cousin in Las Vegas, if the snoops don't have anything better to do than to read our fringe ramblings, well, they should at least join in with our rants. By spying on us secretely, all they do is confirm what we already suspect,...which is that they are wasting a lot of taxpayer dollars in an activity that is more unethical than anything that they might be trying to prevent the so-called bad-guys from doing. Poster: Susan Comment: The only thing I am confident of (sadly) is that my life, including all forms of communication and their perusal, is now considered fair game by our government in their pursuit of terrorism. You are no longer considered innocent until proven guilty in this country. It is quite the contrary, and God help you if you have to prove your innocence in the corrupt court system. Poster: Kareen N Shanks Comment: Absolutely Not..however, I think it is a great waste of time and money by our government if they are filtering all of our e-mail. Don't they realize that the terrorists would not be using e-mail or any other form of communication that could be traced? Get real..they need to read some new spy thrillers to get an idea of how the terrorists will proceed. Poster: Rob Comment: I have read the privacy policies of Yahoo, MSN, and Earthlink, who I use for my emailing and they have made a agreements with me that they will keep my email private and follow the law that respects my privacy. If they are not doing that, then they have breeched a contract with me. I believe in the Consititution and 4th Amendment that protect my privacy. I think the Bush Administration is using lame arguments. They say they are only looking for terrorists (oh really?), but they are in violation of the law, which says they need to get legal authority to read our mail. Poster: Savvy Comment: Internet companies can not and will not be able to protect any of our communications from being seen by the government. So of course our email is being read and analyzed. It just like being phone tapped. Most people are unaware that the government has many lists with people who purchase certain items, read specific topics, travel to various destinations. So why would the government stop there. Our rights are violated everyday by the government and nothing is being done to protect us from the governement. Poster: C.Pardee Comment: Absolutely not. As a former system analyst in the IT industry, I can attest to the fact that there is no such thing as privacy when it comes to e-mail; e-mail that is personal and/or e-mail correspondence part of ones work. If one does not want their electronic correspondence to be reviewed by others it was not intended for, don't send it at all. Poster: Paul James Comment: It is email and many other concerns of security and privacy. I know that my mail is very unsafe, is most likely being read by the gov and the spam, spyware and the so called Patriot Act is of grave concern to me. I also know that my phone and my cars are being tracked by local security in cars and in shopping centers and involving companies. This observation is very freightening as I have no idea why this is happening except it is most likely political as I do support Polosi, Hillary, Gore our troops and others who have to good of mankind at heart. Poster: J.S Comment: All internet communication should be considered 'public' as a rule. In the security field one should NEVER be 'confident'. It has been proven over and over that no system is completely secure, ESPECIALLY over the internet where packets go through dozens of nodes before reaching their destinations; but security aside, should the government really be using information obtained from internet communications and use it as proof for serious allegations of terrorism? What is a journalist is reporting about events and uses keywords in his emails, does he get flagged? What if an adolescent is joking about terrorism to a friend.(it happens!) With recent laws, these people can be detained in CIA prisons without trial. Is this the world we want to live in? Poster: Robert M. Foster Comment: The Bush administration is basing their use of unchecked powers, on the war powers of the president. They forgot to read our Constitution. The joke is that Congress has to declare war before he has war powers. The Emperor is not wearing any war clothes! The other joke is that the terrorist are most likely using secure communications while our American public is mainly using unsecure communications. Poster: Bob Guzauskas Comment: Hmmm, a group advocating privacy asks for my name. As an eBay buyer and seller and a dentist I receive a lot of packages. They ALL are more or less opened and examined. No damage done so..., So what's your point David? For 20 years I have said I like what Castro has done for Cuba. There is a lot of room for debate and advocacy in our USA so long as we remember and return to our democracy and not to violence. Poster: BD Comment: No. Of course not. I agree with Tom Burton; If one is concerned with email privacy it is necessary to invest the small amount of time and effort needed to become familiar with freely available encryption software, and to use it. Or else, be discreet. Poster: Larry Osterman Comment: Would any American want al-Qaeda's next attack to escape discovery because of restrictive laws? What would be the value of a government which abrogated its duty to protect the country because of some whining by those with sinister intentions? Poster: lannys9 Comment: It may be time for the American people to take matters into their own hands by disconnecting their telephones and from the internet. I moved recently but before I did I only had access to one ISP. That ISP required me to have a router for my computer even though I had the only one at the email and web address. When I asked why they said that the government was going to require it in a short time. When I asked someone in the maintenance dept why the government would want a router, he said so they could see what we are doing and read our emails more easily. Poster: J.S. Comment: The way this country does surveillance is more and more reminding me of the SS during world war II. Now that prisoners are allowed to be tortured and tried to a death sentence from what they reveal under torture, we're yet another step closer. I think domestic surveillance is the least of the horrible cruelty this administration is doing. Also, nothing much has changed, since there always WAS domestic spying, they just now are trying to legalize what they were already doing. In the past, the United States intelligence services asked foreign intelligence agencies to spy on the United States, and then they would exchange information with them, thus they would have access to domestic information through a legal backdoor. Poster: jonfalth Comment: I sent email to our elected congress person, on another person's computer, but signed my own name, address, phone number, city, state, and zipcode. To my, and the computer owners' surpise, the owner of the computer got an answer to my email, but with their name and address in the address block of the letter. Poster: John Smith Comment: Regular email is unsecure and it is not farfetched that the government is scanning it. If the government can get inside our heads it has total control over the population. Having said this, it is relatively easy to encrypt your emails with technology that can completely secure your email at the present time. It is halarious that people who are concerned are not using it. Wake up folks. Poster: Pete Zaria Comment: Absolutely not. They're probably reading these messages right now! Poster: Beth Comment: It is wrong that the government is reading our emails when they have no real reason to read them in the first place. They have no reason to spy on us. Are we all criminals? Should I be scared for my life if I send emails of dissent, for speaking of my beliefs in general? The govt. would have to lock up millions of average joe americans who are upset with the govt. Would the govt really go that far and act like the Soviet Union? I'll definately watch the show to find out more! Poster: Caryn Davis Comment: Of course I do not trust the fact that my emails are secure.You know if the tv crime shows can demonstrate how the police can investigate your email for proof of a crime, and they are just the police. How much more evil could the federal gov't do? A lot, I think. I no longer trust the mail, email, telephone or cell phone.I have even heard that companies, when they keep you waiting on hold, even evesdrop. I don't think I'm paranoid either- just realistic. Poster: Elsa Bondar Comment: While emails are not exactly open to the world, it has been aptly demonstrated to me, that people , corporations, etc. with all sorts of agendas have sent me unsolicited and undesired email. What makes me think that any government agency does not have the same access, if they so desire, whether I am encrypted or not. Poster: Susan Frank Comment: No, email is not safe. If someone really wants to find out what you are saying in your email, there are ways to find out. Also there is no guarantees on bank accounts and/or credit card information either. I check my accounts every day just to be sure everything going on has my approval. I've never felt safe on line but that doesnot stop me from using the www. Poster: Tom Burton Comment: For most emails, I follow my late father's advice: consider that anything I say or write--this paragraph, for example--could appear on the evening news. For more sensitive topics, I try to get my friends and associates to obtain S/MIME certificates, which allow secure signing and encryption of emails. Certificates are free; S/MIME is supported by most major email browsers (Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Apple Mail, etc.); and the encryption is painless after 15 minutes of initial effort. Still, most people can't be bothered or use an unsecurable system like Gmail or Yahoo Mail. (I trust neither Google nor Yahoo with my data.) I censor what I write to those people. Poster: Joseph D'Aiello Comment: I am not at all confident that our emails are personal and private. In fact I feel sure that thay are being read . A reporter once asked George Bush if he has ever emailed someone, his answer was no then added I dont want anyone reading my mail. PS such hypocrisy Poster: Denise Ofria Comment: No - all of us in my circle of e-mail friends have expressed concern that we need to moderate our boisterous e-mail political commentary since it is going out via e-mail, which we cannot trust to be secure from the government's prying ways. Poster: Ron Weinberg Comment: I am not confident in the security of email or any other internet traffic, given the Bush regime's contempt for civil liberties, privacy, and the rule of law. I believe that the illegal government spy programs that have been reported in the media are only the tip of the iceberg. I question whether the public will ever know the extent of the Bush regime's crimes or the complicity of AT&T and other network providers in government spy programs. Email, like most internet traffic, is fairly insecure, making eavesdropping trivial. If there is a potential for abuse, it is a safe bet that the government and corporations will exploit that potential until someone forces them to stop. Poster: Keith Korthals Comment: No! I believe they are being read! Poster: Thomas J. Osborne Comment: The Bush administration, claiming that our national security is at stake and that Congress gave the president limitless powers in 2002 to combat terrorism, is most likely reading our emails. Since it is already spying on our book purchases and library checkouts, and inspecting our bank records and phone records, it's logical to infer that our emails are probably being read as well. Both the 4th and 9th Amendments to the Constitution are being shredded and only an enlightened citizenry and a courageous Congress can save the freedoms on which our republic was founded. Poster: Luis Cavallone Comment: No, I am not confident about the security of my E-mail messages Poster: Lincoln Peters Comment: E-mail is inherently insecure. When you send an e-mail message, it is relayed with no security measures of any kind between any number of e-mail servers before it every reaches the intended recipient. At any point in that chain, someone with access to that part of the network could read the e-mail. There are ways to prevent strangers from reading your e-mail, such as using PGP or GPG to encrypt it, but it's still possible for someone find out who sent the e-mail and who they sent it to. They are also difficult enough to set up and use that few people actually use them. Poster: PRINCESS Comment: NO, I AM NOT. THE INTERNET PROVIDER CANNOT GUARANTEE NO UNSOLICTIED SPYING OF MY INFORMATION. Poster: Gretchen Comment: Are you kidding? I was a teenager in the fifties and I am sure the technology is more advanced than then. But, still, I think that our society has not kept up with our technological development. I remember the McCarthy era and I wonder if history is repeating itself, but with even greater tools for watching over citizens. Poster: Judith Nappe Comment: No and never have been. Poster: Alan Comment: Anyone who is confident in the security of personal emails, should understand that it is about as secure as posting a message on a billboard. Poster: Selma Goldberg Comment: I am not confident given the Bush administration's habit of monitering our personal communications. But there is nothing of interest to others in my opinion. Poster: Aurora E. Hunter Comment: I am not confident about my email security. I have no doubt but that I have been or may be monitored by the government. Poster: Mark Comment: If people were secure about our electronic way of communication there would not be such clamor for a paper trail for voting. I think that pretty much says it all. Poster: n.b. Comment: I have never thought e-mails to be secure. I am surprised that this question is even being asked. |
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