What can a Brit do to retain email privacy?

[bubs]

The problem is outlined here: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=1802

Ok - so I want to protect my correspondance not because I have anything to hide, but as a point of political principle.

Any suggestions as to a domain hoster (outside the UK!) who can provide me with SMTP email services CHEAP! and reliable?

[Checkout]

IM me.

[Paul Wilders]

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) could take care of email encryption - it's not 100% proof, but on average will do the trick.

regards,

paul

[snowman]

Did you folks notice that using enigmail you no longer need a plug in such as used with becky's to use pgp?

snowman

[bubs]

Thanks Paul and Snowman.

I reckon Checkout is onto a good idea - an email encryption version of a web proxy.

Just a matter of finding one...........

[snowy]

Buds

you can check this out if you care to

http://www.xint.com/


snowy(snowman)

[zappa]

Paul, could you expand a little on why you said PGP is not 100% proof. Thanks.

[Checkout]

{QUOTE-> quoting: zappa link=board=22;threadid=1804;start=0#13366 date=1024126558]
Paul, could you expand a little on why you said PGP is not 100% proof. Thanks.
<-QUOTE}
I'd also like to understand this better.

[Paul Wilders]

Just from digging memory here.

When Zimmermann left, and a "big security company" took full control over PGP, quality of new versions rapidly went downhill. I would have to perform some digging to find the specs. In essence, versions above v6.5.8 are not recommended for that reason.

There should be several threads over here - including Zimmermann critizing later versions. A "search" over here could point you the way.

regards.

paul

[Helpin]

If you wanna do it right http://www.mutemail.com/
It is not cheap but it works.
The company keeps no records at all on you. The billing is all done 3rd party or by anon. money order. No logs kept.
It is POP not webmail. It is done right.

[bubs]

Thanks Helpin and others.

I'm going down the route of offshore hosting, and encryption.

I don't want to be anonymous, just not to help some nosey civil servant who has no just cause to pry, and doesn't have to bother to go through 'due process' to get access to my ISP and phone logs.

[Checkout]

{QUOTE-> quoting: bubs link=board=22;threadid=1804;start=0#13631 date=1024305580]not to help some nosey civil servant who has no just cause to pry <-QUOTE}
Hear, hear. :-\

[crockett]

Hello;

A few lines which you might be interseted in to perhaps complement what Paul said earlier about Phil Zimmermann and PGP.

Around January 2001, Phil Z. wrote a message entitled "A note to PGP users", in which he explained his reasons for leaving the company from then on owning the (quoting) "trademark and source code for the NAI implementation of PGP".

He went on saying that "all versions produced by NAI, and PGP security, up and including the current (January 2001) release, PGP 7.0.3, are free of back doors".

Again quoting, "[...] if NAI ever publishes the complete PGP 7.0.3 source code, I am confident that the public will be able to see that there are still no back doors. Until that time, I can offer only my own assurances that this version of PGP was developed on my watch, and has no back doors. In fact, I believe it to be the most secure version of PGP produced to date."

This text I still have an exemplar of, but I have no idea which thread I followed to get my hands on it back then. It should not be that difficult for anyone interested to find it on the Web.

Paul, did you know of this message by Phil Zimmermann ? What do you think about It ?

Rgds, Crockett

[Paul Wilders]

Hi Crockett,

Indeed I've been reading the article you are referring to.

PGP/Zimmermann has been discussed in this thread:

www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=909;start=0 (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=909;start=0)

regards.

paul

[Prince_Serendip]

What about ZipLip? Could be useful. Good practical privacy policies. Here's the link. And, it's mostly free of charge.

https://www.ziplip.com/services/index.html

[Paul Wilders]

Hi PS,

A matter of personal choice. Personally I prefer a fairly secure email client (The Bat!) in conjunction with PGP.

regards.

paul

[crockett]

Hi Paul;

Thanks for the thread to Phil Zimmermann's story. Sure he must be regretting some of his commercial choices...

Do you have any specific comment about potential weaknesses in PGP versions which appeared later than 6.5.8.?!

Sorry to ask, but it sure seems an important issue...;)

BTW the thread to 'Full Story in The Register' is broken...

Rgds, Crockett

[crockett]

Back online...

Just checked at www.pgpi.org.

PGP 7.0.3 was the last freeware international version of PGP.

Phil Zimmermann's comments I was referring to earlier can be found at the same address.

Paul, are there a lot of different addresses where PGP users's public keys can be found ?

Crockett 8)

[crockett]

:)On further thought, I think it's better to ask any correspondent you might want to communicate with for his PGP public key directly, rather than trusting any list one may find on the Internet...

Crockett

[Paul Wilders]

Hi Crockett,

Apologies for replying this late.

Not that many servers around anymore to store a public key: one might give

http://pgp.mit.edu a try.

Posting the public key on a personal website and providing a link as a signature (using templates fe) on emails would be another possibility.

regards.

paul