How private are our emails?

Like any average user, I was under the impression that my emails are relatively secure and could only be viewed by the recipient. Imagine my surprise, when I discovered that all emails whether by Yahoo/Gmail or by local ISPs are sent similar to the open postcard which can be read by the postmen, the staff at the post office who come in contact with the postcard, and the post office will retain a copy of all my personal and business mails.

The irony was that the intended recipient would need a password to get access to the email whereas most of the people /computers involved in the email delivery system gets a free copy!

It may be argued, that given the volume of emails, who will have time to peep into ones mails. But I would not want to leave my house door wide open giving the thieves GET IN MY HOUSE FREE CARD. Nor would I want my competitors to get hands on my pricing or quotations or my company’s system administrator to get a copy of my new job offer. Thats what happens when we use Yahoo/MSN/Gmail and other similar mail servers. (Although they do offer other great services, but not sufficient privacy.)

I came across two interesting FREE mail servers which promises us PGP encryption security. (they claim to be one of the best in the world) They are www.s-mail.com and www.hushmail.com . They are not rich in graphics, free storage space and features like those of Yahoo, Gmail etc., but offer us good privacy. Hushmail also has secure “type chat” but no voice chat. There would be much wider and better choices available on the net. Do let us all know if any of you have come up with a better secure FREE mail servers.

If you do intend to use Hushmail.com, do make sure you select a long passPHRASE of atleast seven words, as oppose to the usual passWORD. Because it uses individual passPHRASE to base its encryption for your email account.

My intention in this mail to let all laymen’s like me, know how their emails are being processed, and can exercise due diligence depending on their own privacy requirement.

Yusuf Yemani