Tagged Questions

-3
votes
1answer
73 views

Automated scanning of personal email [closed]

I am a current user of gmail, and have recently become interested in the privacy policies of the large webmail providers like gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc. I understand that it is commonplace for them to ...
4
votes
1answer
163 views

Is it safe to abandon a free webmail account that has been in use for a significant amount of time?

I have a free webmail account that I have been using for around ten years now. Over the past two years I have almost phased out using this address. I have concerns around accounts that I may have ...
15
votes
3answers
699 views

How can I protect against email tracking services?

Recently a free service came out for email tracking, bananatag. It's able to track the fact that the email was read in gmail without any notice or strange inclusions in the email body. In this case ...
7
votes
1answer
122 views

GPG-encrypted mailing list and other approaches to safe communication

What is the best way to communicate privately on a mailing-list? Requiring each member of the list to have the public key of each other member, and encrypt their messages with those, is cumbersome to ...
4
votes
4answers
157 views

Secure file sharing, instead of attaching files to emails?

Allow me to give a background, so you may understand my situation better. We have been prone to sending emails to unintended recipients, many of which contained confidential data. Email is the only ...
3
votes
2answers
167 views

Is my email client violating my privacy?

There are many ways that emails can be used to violate the privacy of the recipient (Return-Receipt-To:, web bugs, iframes loaded from an external page, and other email tracking methods). It may be ...
1
vote
3answers
473 views

Email security and Home Mail Servers

Suppose you're truly paranoid (I assume the majority here identify with this?) and you don't want Google or other email service providers reading your email (to serve ads, etc). You don't want your ...
3
votes
1answer
145 views

Facebook changed the default email address for every contact. How do I mitigate the impact and risk?

Facebook created a problem for regulated industries and Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) by changing the default outgoing SMTP address for every contact to a @Facebook.com address. This is an ...
3
votes
2answers
165 views

Securely storing (email) lookup database

Looking for suggestions on implementing a server-side lookup table, where the key is an email address. Goal: Keep these email address private, even if data on the server is stolen. Assumptions: The ...
5
votes
2answers
205 views

Is it secure to have an “email no longer available” feature on your registration form?

I was just implementing a new feature on the registration form of my site that checks if an email address is still available to register an account with. I am wondering if it is secure to show a user ...
15
votes
5answers
1k views

How does preventing automatic download of pictures help to protect my privacy?

When viewing some emails in Microsoft Outlook, if the sender has included images, I get the following option appear at the top of the email: "To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented ...
5
votes
1answer
95 views

How long can I store personal information on unconfirmed subscriptions?

I have a monthly newsletter. In my subscribe form I use a double opt-in method: The visitor subscribes. I send him a confirmation email. If I receive a reply, I add him/her to my system. In the ...
2
votes
4answers
1k views

If a hacker were to compromise a GMail database

Assuming the systems that store the Gmail database is compromised what is preventing them from reading everyone's emails by looking at the data in the database? I assume nothing, and in order for ...
2
votes
3answers
309 views

Security issues with email accounts

I am starting to become wary of giving out my email account to anyone, just by doing reconnaissance it is evident how easy it is to pull so much information from a person just by a email, There is a ...
10
votes
3answers
3k views

Is a password protected PDF file safe for bank statement attachments?

My bank emails my monthly statement to me in a password protected PDF attachment. Is this a secure method of transmitting something as sensitive as bank statement?
3
votes
4answers
400 views

What Gmail features should be Opted-Out to prevent PII from being indexed?

The Massachusetts and Nevada PII laws require all email with SSNs or other personally identifying information to be encrypted (TLS or otherwise). Of the free email providers, GMail does support TLS ...
8
votes
5answers
1k views

Privacy issues with email providers

I am looking for an email provider (or for a way to do it myself) that will not divulge my personal information under no circumstances. I found out that getting this information with a order for ...
5
votes
4answers
233 views

Circumventing a “freemail” account form filter

I'll be honest - I want to download a free PDF from a website which requires me to enter my "non freeware" email address. I do have them, but I dont want to use one as I'm afraid of landing up on a ...