Email is NOT private
Rights Groups Argue In Court For E-mail Privacy
Several cyber-liberties groups are arguing in federal court that protections that shield telephone calls and postal mail from unreasonable search and seizure should be extended to e-mail stored online.
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
Nov 28, 2006 01:00 PM
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Oh dear Lord! You mean that someone in the government is going to read all those emails you've been writing?!!? Your email isn't yours? It is not private?!!
I have written about email and privacy before. If the email is not on YOUR server, it is NOT private. Period. Try using some security software. [read about security software here and here]
UPDATE: 11/28/2006
Sniffing out Microsoft’s ‘OS in the cloud’ skunk-works project by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley -- There's a skunk-works project inside Microsoft under Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie that is dedicated to turning Windows into an Internet service. But what does that mean, exactly? Microsoft Senior VP of online services Steve Berkowitz helped me start piecing together Microsoft's vision for the future of Windows.
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Microsoft looks to be trying to virtulize major parts of its bundled software. What this means is that all your user information will be stored on Microsoft's (or its partners) servers. Email, personal data, contact lists, phone numbers, birthdays, documents you are editing, photos, financial transactions, etc. are all going to be "Live". Think about the implications of the above email flak and you can see where the problem is to your privacy.
Encryption is now more important than ever, but if your keys are stored on Microsoft's servers...
This could be Microsoft's big Linux killer. Linux is still very much run by individual effort. If your application you depend on is virtulaized, who will host it? That is a lot of bandwidth usage. Bandwidth costs money and since GPL software is supposed to be free, you are hosed. Either you hemmorage cash or you produce closed source applications or use something other than the GPL as a license. Linux, which is under GPL, cannot compete in this type of virtualization field.
The benefit to this network-based model is that the apps you buy will be available to you on any device that uses Microsoft's base loader program; cellphones, PDAs, laptops, computers, game consoles, media devices (like a next-gen Zune) will all have access to the applications you use and your data. Furthermore, it helps Microsoft and corporate IT as the software patching is done at Microsoft and would be applied universally and simultaneously. Patch management becomes a thing of the past. Possibly, that would result in a much lower TCO (total cost of ownership).
Several cyber-liberties groups are arguing in federal court that protections that shield telephone calls and postal mail from unreasonable search and seizure should be extended to e-mail stored online.
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
Nov 28, 2006 01:00 PM
[...]
Oh dear Lord! You mean that someone in the government is going to read all those emails you've been writing?!!? Your email isn't yours? It is not private?!!
I have written about email and privacy before. If the email is not on YOUR server, it is NOT private. Period. Try using some security software. [read about security software here and here]
UPDATE: 11/28/2006
Sniffing out Microsoft’s ‘OS in the cloud’ skunk-works project by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley -- There's a skunk-works project inside Microsoft under Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie that is dedicated to turning Windows into an Internet service. But what does that mean, exactly? Microsoft Senior VP of online services Steve Berkowitz helped me start piecing together Microsoft's vision for the future of Windows.
[...]
Microsoft looks to be trying to virtulize major parts of its bundled software. What this means is that all your user information will be stored on Microsoft's (or its partners) servers. Email, personal data, contact lists, phone numbers, birthdays, documents you are editing, photos, financial transactions, etc. are all going to be "Live". Think about the implications of the above email flak and you can see where the problem is to your privacy.
Encryption is now more important than ever, but if your keys are stored on Microsoft's servers...
This could be Microsoft's big Linux killer. Linux is still very much run by individual effort. If your application you depend on is virtulaized, who will host it? That is a lot of bandwidth usage. Bandwidth costs money and since GPL software is supposed to be free, you are hosed. Either you hemmorage cash or you produce closed source applications or use something other than the GPL as a license. Linux, which is under GPL, cannot compete in this type of virtualization field.
The benefit to this network-based model is that the apps you buy will be available to you on any device that uses Microsoft's base loader program; cellphones, PDAs, laptops, computers, game consoles, media devices (like a next-gen Zune) will all have access to the applications you use and your data. Furthermore, it helps Microsoft and corporate IT as the software patching is done at Microsoft and would be applied universally and simultaneously. Patch management becomes a thing of the past. Possibly, that would result in a much lower TCO (total cost of ownership).