Article 12 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence."
It's that last one that's gotten everyone's attention lately. Just how private is your correspondence online?
Depending on your politics, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is either a vile turncoat or a revered hero, but either way he has advice on how to stay two steps ahead of the NSA.
He held an awesome "press conference" of sorts on The Guardian's website, taking written questions from readers and typing out his answers online.
We were most intrigued by his response to a question about encryption. If someone wants to stay off the NSA's radar, could he or she encrypt emails and send them without arousing any suspicion?
Snowden's response: "Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on. Unfortunately, endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it."
A brief caveat before we dive in deeper with encryption. This whole "NSA domestic spying" news item is weird and scary, sure, but it has much more to do with the "connectivity matrix," or the relationship that exists between personal and commercial computers all around the world and the fact that the NSA can exploit it. Yes, your privacy matters, but the real issue raised here is that the NSA can basically use a "cheat code" to become all-powerful in the internet "video game."
That said, it's useful to know how to effectively encrypt your email. Let's talk about PGP encryption, one of the most popular ways of doing so.
PGP stands for "Pretty Good Privacy." It uses two "keys," one publicly viewable to the world, the other kept solely to yourself. You can generate PGP keys to your heart's content using the free tool at iGolder and a number of other services around the web.
Here's a sample public key:
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-email-encryption-works- against-the-nsa-2013-6#ixzz2WfFHScfa
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