In the past, messages were mailed, and the privacy of letters was respected (with the
help of the government). Unimportant information was sent on postcards, which everyone
read. The privacy rules of communications were well defined. Even if you
received a letter at work, it was yours to read and keep.With the advent of the
telephone, confusion about the rules of communication privacy began. Others could
listen-in on extensions at work or home, switchboard operators and telephone repairmen had
racy stories from conversations they "inadvertently" overheard, wiretaps could
be authorized for investigative purposes, and on and on...
And now there is E-mail, which is a blatant misnomer. Most certainly, E-Postcards
would be much more appropriate. At least then people would not think that E-mail was
a private way to communicate. As yet, not all the rules are defined. We'll
know in a few years what the rules are supposed to be, although there are so many ways to
break them. Every day, hackers have fun by breaking into secure sites. It's
all over the news.
What is not common knowledge, however, is that your ISP (Internet Service Provider) has
unlimited access to everything on its servers (which includes your E-Mail),
supervisors for the network at your office see it all, and upper management increasingly
examines employee E-Mail. Criminals who steal computers can read all the sensitive
information on the hard disk.
The fact is that the only way to guarantee the privacy of your E-mail is to use
encryption technology. By encrypting your E-mail only the designated recipient will
be able to read the message. Although there are many software products available
which will protect your mail, we feel that WINciphr is the best and
easiest way to perform this task. WINciphr safely seals your private
message in an electronic envelope - the digital equivalent of a bank vault.
