Blog 4: Privacy

Think Your Emails Private? Think Again.  

Andy Yen talks about how we have lost control over our data and privacy. During the ted talk, Think Your Email's Private? Think Again, he proves that the option to communicate privately online does not exist. This talk stood out to me because I send emails everyday and I was intrigued to know who else was able to access my information. 

Yen explains that most people have no idea that their email providers can read their messages. From this fact, Yen took it upon himself to make a solution. He created ProtonMail. It is an email service that keeps emails private in secure by using end-to-end encryption. Yen states, "What we do is we generate encryption keys on your computer." By encrypting emails, it means that only the sender and recipient can read the emails. Proton mail cannot access or decrypt emails, which makes it a reliable email source and Yen states that he wants to get the whole world on board with this email server. 

This issue affects me because my messages are not fully private. My email providers have access to my data which makes me feel invaded. My family and I are not safe when it comes to thinking we are only communicating with each other. If my emails are not encrypted, that means there are multiple other sources that can access what I am saying. After listening to the Ted Talk, I believe that encryption should be implemented in all email services. Yen describes how emails are sent as everyone having a key to messages. When encryption is present, the only people who have the key to know what the message says is the sender and the recipient, and I think that this is a great idea to ensure privacy. 

The government should pass laws to protect online privacy. They should give people the right to control their data and limit how many other sources can access peoples personal data. The government should enforce stronger privacy laws and enforce encryption on every email service. In order to protect my own privacy, I need to make sure that I am aware of what websites are not privacy friendly, use encrypted messaging, and be cautious when I use public servers.