What Are Your Options Now For Secure Email?

Via LH

It's shockingly, disturbingly easy for the government to snoop on your emails. Here are your weapons in the fight for your email privacy.


Many of us had assumed our feeble Gmail passwords were secure enough to keep prying eyes out of our email accounts. (I used a letter, a number, and a symbol!) But with revelations that the NSA can pretty much demand any email service turn over valuable and private information about our email, more attention has been turning to secure, encrypted email services.

In the past week, two of the most prominent--Lavabit and Secret Circle--have shut down voluntarily rather than be forced to comply with real or potential NSA requests (which are legally binding).

Lavabit shut down after, we assume, receiving legal demands for information. Lavabit posted a message saying the creator can't "legally share" what the impetus for shutting it down was, but that he chose that option, along with erasing all his data, rather than submit to government demands. Secret Circle did not receive a requests, but merely "saw the writing on the wall" and voluntarily deleted everything.

So what can you use now?

Email encryption is pretty wonky, but basically it boils down to this: email is basically not secure.

There are steps you can take to protect yourself, through both free and paid services, but the U.S. government has shown its willingness to compel even legendary secure email services like Lavabit--which Edward Snowden used for five years--to shut down. If you're truly paranoid, here are your options.

Instant Messaging

More @ POPSCI