...as evil as Chinese or Russian government?

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You are very close to a secret agent? And I'm very close to angels..hehe.. I don't know how banks work,but I know bank managers don't steal people's privacy.

You think secret agents are reading your emails? Is their time really that useless? Its just done by desk workers.

Reply 21

Tabris

Original post by DiddyDec

Why fear it?

If you have nothing to hide why worry. I'm pretty sure that 99% of anyone's emails are pretty boring and the other 1% are suspicious at best. Not incriminating.

That old chestnut, ey?

Would you be okay if they setup CCTV in every home and had your every move within your own home on record? They probably wouldn't look at it (though they might if you say a word that flags their attention, even in a joke context), but they'll have it stored somewhere for a few months at the very least.

It doesn't matter if you have nothing to hide. It's the principle of being able to invade your privacy at will.

Reply 22

419

Original post by Arbolus

I expect a responsible government to have the ability at least to look into anyone's private emails whenever they need to, just as they once had the ability to intercept private mail. Without that, it would be next to impossible for the intelligence services to get anywhere in our digitally-connected world.

The only thing I'm surprised about is that it took this long. Cracking the encryption should have been a constant priority for the last 20 years.

Well, the thing that's come out of all this is governments aren't acting responsibly. They're targeting everyone without discrimination and acting out of the jurisdiction that they've came up with when said jurisdiction is extremely dummed down in the first place.

Funny thing about this is that you would all be acting so differently if it was the vices of Russia and China doing this.

Original post by DiddyDec

Why fear it?

If you have nothing to hide why worry. I'm pretty sure that 99% of anyone's emails are pretty boring and the other 1% are suspicious at best. Not incriminating.

Posted from TSR Mobile

People really think like this? Seriously?

Reply 23

DiddyDec01

Original post by Tabris

There is a big difference between online privacy and actual privacy. People will say and do completely different things online to what they would normally do. There is a limit to how much privacy they are intruding on. And if you don't like them doing it there are plenty of ways to stop them being able to access your emails.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 24

Arbolus

Original post by 419

So? If they find something that incriminates me for anything then I deserve to be prosecuted, regardless of how the evidence was obtained. If they don't they can't do anything to me. I don't see how it's irresponsible.

And actually I expect Russia and China, and Iran, and North Korea, and Zimbabwe, to behave exactly the same, even if I don't approve of what they do with the results. I'm not a hypocrite you know.

Reply 25

John Stuart Mill

Original post by Arbolus

The difference is none of of those countries self declare themselves land of the free and protectors of liberty.

Reply 26

skunkboy

Original post by The_Duck

You think secret agents are reading your emails? Is their time really that useless? Its just done by desk workers.

Haha, I am just a nobody. Why do those nosy agents want to read my email? Oh...i just forgot.. stealing people's privacy is their usual activity...for national security. I don't waste my any more... talking with you about those thieves is now really useless. Bye.

Reply 27

skunkboy

Original post by The_Duck

You think secret agents are reading your emails? Is their time really that useless? Its just done by desk workers.

Haha, I am just a nobody. Why do those nosy agents want to read my email? Oh...i just forgot.. stealing people's privacy is their usual activity...for national security. I don't waste my time any more... talking with you about those thieves is now really useless. goodbye.

Reply 28

Tabris

Original post by DiddyDec

The way news laws are introduced and worded, there is almost no difference between what you say online and in person these days. You are not protected from saying anything online and are as liable to prosecution as if you had said it to someone's face, if not more so as you're leaving black and white evidence on the Internet, especially if the UK and US governments are holding data on everybody for at least 30 days (not to forget ISP logs that are a minimum of 6 months, IIRC).

You obviously didn't read the OP's article either, the whole point is that they're more than capable of breaking any encryption you may use to protect your emails. Something like PGP, if you really wanted to use it. Useless; they could crack it if they really wanted to. Or there are 'secure' email providers like Lavabit, who were closed down by the US government because it was one of Snowden's preferred email providers, one that strived to provide anonymity. Others, like hushmail are supposed to be run by the US government. Throw in the nothing to hide; nothing to fear mantra that you support, then the only people who will ever use any form of encryption or any of these services probably has something to hide and would be treated with suspicion.

So no, you don't really have the choice of stopping them from accessing your emails. You can make it a little bit more of a challenge, but you can't really stop them.

It's like if your postman was allowed to snoop through your mail and being totally okay with that. Nothing to hide, right?