EMail Security For You & Your Friends: Would You Use It?

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If a friend of your's installed software that encrypted email messages, and the software is free and doesn't have any spyware, would you use it? Before you answer that question please keep this in mind: #1 : You would need to use a program like Outlook, Thunderbird, Eduroa or something similar. You could still sign into the web mail service of course, but you would not be able to read the encrypted messages there and you would not be able to respond with an encrypted message to your friend. You would need to use an email service that lets you download mail to your computer. GMail is probably the best for this. #2 : You would need to install the same software onto your computer that your friend uses. #3 : All email is transmitted over the Internet as plain readable text. Also, email services keep records of your email for a long time after you delete them. The length of time depends on the company (GMail, Yahoo, whatever). #4 : Recently, the U.S. government has said that it's okay for the government to spy on Americans without a warrant. Sadly this is not paranoid nonsense; please don't take my word for it and search Google or news sites for the information if you're doubtful. So... would you use email encryption, despite the fact that you don't do or talk about anything illegal?