Hushmail – Email Privacy and the Government
If you think that your Hushmail emails are secure, think again. Despite the PGP encryption, Hushmail, a Canadian company, is apparently cooperating with U.S. law enforcement authorities who want to look at emails.
This raises many interesting legal issues but reinforces the fact that you should never put in email anything that you don’t want third parties to read. Assume the worst will happen. “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead,” quipped Benjamin Franklin. Consider this when writing your next e-mail. Even if the recipient doesn’t share what you wrote with someone else (and chances are that he will), your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or email provider may be gutting your privacy rights behind your back by giving copies to the government or even someone interested in suing you.
What’s the lesson for your online business?
If you make representations about your products or services, you better stand by those representations. And if your website’s privacy policy states X is true, you should make sure that it is in fact true.
As for Hushmail, it will be interesting to see if the company gets sued.
Hat tip to Iaian Thomson at ITNews for this email privacy story.
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Is Your ISP a Snitch for the MPAA?
The MPAA wants your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to fight piracy on its behalf. That’s like the auto dealership where you got your car selling you out to the police for speeding. Yes, you the paying customer are supposed to go along like a dumb sheep by paying for the privilege of having your ISP work against you.
The point isn’t whether you should be infringing upon a movie copyright or two. That’s a debate for another day.
Instead, the issue is how long will you continue to elect politicians that let groups such as RIAA and MPAA run roughshod over your privacy rights simply because they’ve got the money to bribe Congress, coerce ISPs, sue the average person into oblivion, and even set up fake video sites to entrap you.
“People just don’t have the right to take (copyrighted works) at their pleasure.” – Dan Glickman
Really?
Wonder how many piracy hypocrites there are in the entertainment industry? Want to bet Hollywood is filled with industry insiders who will never be sued for pirating a movie or music?
How about a new law that lets you search the homes of celebrities, entertainment industry executives, lobbyists, and politicians who pass stupid laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to see how many of them and their families are engaging in piracy?
Never happen. Instead, you’ll just get to wait to see if your ISP becomes your Big Brother who spies upon you for the MPAA’s Glickman and the cretins he represents.
Hat tip to Anne Broache at CNet News.com
