As governments around the world make the news, especially since the multiple Snowden revelations, you have to realize that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Before everyone attacked the NSA, many problems had already come to light: companies who practice industrial espionage, employers who spy on their employees, people who steal your identity, hackers.
For example, you may, in the course of your work, have to exchange by e-mail on sensitive subjects with external speakers. Confidential subjects coveted by your opponents. Or even financial or economic data that would interest your competitors. You can make use of Mensajera privada there.
No? It is, But that’s not all
If, like most Internet users, you are just a private individual, who hasn’t asked anyone for anything and who doesn’t use their email for professional reasons, you still have good reasons to worry.
To begin with, be aware that if you are using an email address provided for free by a large web company, such as Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft, then you have tacitly allowed that company to scan your emails. It’s free, of course, but it’s still worth reading the little lines before checking the box “I accept these conditions”. Indeed, while using their service, you should be aware that you are literally giving them double the keys to your mailbox.
What would you say if your mail systematically arrived already open (and therefore read) in your mailbox?
Imagine that this is what is happening because these companies are fond of your emails. They do what is called data mining. It consists of analyzing all the data concerning you, to perform profiling that will best match your behavior and your personality. The purpose of the maneuver is in particular to be able to guess your areas of interest, and to send you targeted advertisements. Another goal, less open and often condemnable, is to be able to resell all or part of this profiling to third parties, generally other companies. And believe me, in some areas your data sells for a high price.
- Added to this is a common behavior among Internet users, which is to centralize all their digital activities on a single e-mail address. We must admit that it is practical to be able to consult everything from one place, without having to juggle between different addresses.
The flip side is that your supplier literally knows everything about you, and more. What you order online, on which sites you have registered, with whom you converse, on what subjects, at what time, where you have booked your next vacation, in which bank you are, your credit card number, your documents ‘identity, in which store you are going to do your shopping, when you have completed your tax return, whether you pay your EDF bills on time, your last medical analysis results, the job offers you have consulted, the contracts you have signed. These are just examples of all the data that you will agree should be kept confidential at all costs.
Conclusion
But that’s not all. Apart from your provider, anyone with access to your Internet network, or to one of the servers on which your messages will bounce, or even to one of the networks through which your messages will pass, also has access to all your data. So many unknowns, and so many potential malicious acts.
