I know that my email service providers read my emails. But I thought it was after I sent it. It came as quite a shock when I realized that it was read even before I sent it. I had received an email from someone. It had no content, nor was any file attached to it. I wrote back -
"There is no text in the email, nor is there any file attached to it. Perhaps it was an oversight?"
When I clicked on the send button, Gmail asked me "You have written 'file attached' but there is no file attached. Send the email anyway?"
It was rather nice and helpful of Gmail to notice something like this and ask me. It was also inadequate comprehension on the part of the electronic snooping, because I had not written I had attached a file. What was much more important was that they had read my email even before it was sent.
'What will Gmail do if I write words indicating terrorism, like bomb, gun, explosive, spy, or whatever they consider threatening in my email?" I wondered aloud. "Will they send the email, ask me to change the text, delete those words before sending the email, close my email account, or send federal agents to arrest me?"
"There was such a movement in US recently" someone told me. "The group decided to send an innocuous email containing such words scattered in the text, in large numbers to a lot of people on the same day, just to teach the electronic snoopers a lesson by throwing them into overdrive."
"What happened then? Did they send it?"
"Probably. The snoopers would not reveal what happened anyway."
"What if I send encrypted email? Will they sit and decrypt my text?" I asked.
"They might. But do you have anything important that you would like to keep from them?"
"No. I would do it because principally I would like my privacy maintained. On the other hand, thanks to these snoopers terror threats are aborted. They are doing it for all of us.I might as well help them by not encrypting my emails. They can use their time and resources thus saved on reading emails of terrorists."
"Do you know how to encrypt your emails?"
"Yes" I said. "I have Javascript code to encrypt my emails. Only after writing that code have I made a decision not to encrypt the emails, just so that no one would claim I would not do it because I did not know how."
"There is no text in the email, nor is there any file attached to it. Perhaps it was an oversight?"
When I clicked on the send button, Gmail asked me "You have written 'file attached' but there is no file attached. Send the email anyway?"
It was rather nice and helpful of Gmail to notice something like this and ask me. It was also inadequate comprehension on the part of the electronic snooping, because I had not written I had attached a file. What was much more important was that they had read my email even before it was sent.
'What will Gmail do if I write words indicating terrorism, like bomb, gun, explosive, spy, or whatever they consider threatening in my email?" I wondered aloud. "Will they send the email, ask me to change the text, delete those words before sending the email, close my email account, or send federal agents to arrest me?"
"There was such a movement in US recently" someone told me. "The group decided to send an innocuous email containing such words scattered in the text, in large numbers to a lot of people on the same day, just to teach the electronic snoopers a lesson by throwing them into overdrive."
"What happened then? Did they send it?"
"Probably. The snoopers would not reveal what happened anyway."
"What if I send encrypted email? Will they sit and decrypt my text?" I asked.
"They might. But do you have anything important that you would like to keep from them?"
"No. I would do it because principally I would like my privacy maintained. On the other hand, thanks to these snoopers terror threats are aborted. They are doing it for all of us.I might as well help them by not encrypting my emails. They can use their time and resources thus saved on reading emails of terrorists."
"Do you know how to encrypt your emails?"
"Yes" I said. "I have Javascript code to encrypt my emails. Only after writing that code have I made a decision not to encrypt the emails, just so that no one would claim I would not do it because I did not know how."
