March, the month of spring time, the month of love. We thought we would use the entry for this month to show how much we love our users and their right to privacy.
For us, one of the most important things in this world is privacy. If you believe in God then you likely also believe He gave us some privacy. That is, our thoughts and our dreams are our own. If we want to share them with others, that is our choice, but we do have the choice.
If we want to share our thoughts with someone else, then we must consider that they might share those thoughts with others. This we cannot stop. Once we release information it is out there. However, we should get to choose who gets to receive our thoughts in the first place. If we are careful with whom we interact, then we can feel confident than what we communicate in confidence will remain private. However, we must consider the means of communication and whether that is trustworthy or not.
Let us look at a few examples. If we write our thoughts on a postcard then everyone who handles that postcard can easily read what we wrote. If we drop that postcard in a mailbox then the person who picks up the mail from that mailbox, the handlers in his post office, then the handlers in the sorting center, and finally the postman who delivers the postcard can all see our thoughts. A postcard is not sealed and is quite easy to read.
Another example is if we use smoke signals. This is a very old technology and not really in use anymore but if we did use it, anyone who can see the smoke can know our thoughts. This is because the smoke uses the air and sight and these are not secure as many people can see the same smoke signals.
Now, what if we use the telephone? Well, that is a little different and a little bit the same. It is different because normally for someone to listen in on our conversations they require a warrant. However, this is only true in countries with the rule of law and even in those countries the police often convince people it is in their best interest if they have no privacy so the police can listen to anyone they want. It is the same as the other media because you are using a public network. Unless you build your own telephone system, then you are using the public telephone system. As such, you have no right to expect privacy in your conversations.
This is very similar to email. Email travels over the Internet - another public network. Unless you build your own network then you have no right to expect privacy. Of course, if you use the postal system, you can use an envelope. This gives you the right to expect privacy. After all, someone cannot easily read what you wrote if it is inside a sealed envelope - they would have to open the envelope to do that (of course, if the police think you are a bad person then they can get a warrant and open all your mail anyway).
Email, unlike voice, is very easy to read in an automated fashion. So, if a hacker puts a packet sniffer (a device which allows someone to read the raw traffic traveling over a network) on your line, then they can easily scan all of your communications for key words or phrases. For example, if you are an executive at some company, the hacker might look for 'buying' or 'take over' trying to find out what other company you might plan on buying or taking over. With this information, the hacker can buy shares in that company and demand a higher price for them, all because he knew your private thoughts. Perhaps you were simply communicating with another executive (at your company or at the company you want to buy) but now the information is known by a third party and your plans can be negatively affected (your purchase price will be higher, you may face competition in the take over).
As you might guess, the solution is to encrypt your messages. This prevents others (even us) from being able to read them. Encrypting email is simply too difficult (this is why so few people do it). Worse, even if you spend the time (could be hours) getting encryption set up on your computer, it is meaningless unless the recipients of your messages also use (the same) encryption software. However, if you both use TrulyMail (instead of email), then there is no problem. Just enable your account for encryption and your communications to other TrulyMail users will be private. No more worrying about a hacker picking up on your communications and causing you problems.
There are many reasons to keep your thoughts private. The important thing is that you have the choice and, with TrulyMail, you have the power. That's how much we love our users.
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