[Freedombox-discuss] Email Encryption Basics

[Russell Edwards]

On 17/11/12 18:48, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
> Anyway, I think there's a sea change occurring on how people look at 
> the trade-off between convenience and privacy.  Tonight on Real Time 
> with Bill Maher, Bill asked the guests what the FBI is doing reading 
> the emails of people involved in a sex scandal.  That's the first time 
> I've ever heard a comedian address online privacy like that; the 
> Guardian had a pretty detailed piece asking this question, too: 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/13/petraeus-surveillance-state-fbi

I don't know... this is still an example of targeted spying. As such, 
most people believe it will never happen to them. So their care factor 
is much reduced in comparison to what it would be if they realised what 
is actually occurring - mass surveillance, with hostile intent. Not only 
*is* it happening to them, it is happening to everyone else they know, 
and everyone they don't. And every time they have an online social 
interaction they're facilitating not only the surveillance of 
themselves, but also the surveillance of their friends. Or "informing on 
them" as Eben Moglen likes to put it.

That's the reality--still a huge leap from someone thinking "hey, a 
government agency is spying on senior public officials". That's been 
happening for millennia. Mass surveillance has not.

Russell