Anon-E-Mail?

(PART TWO ON DIGITAL CIVIL RIGHTS)

I was talking to someone the other day who assured me that he was certain that he was sure that he knew for a fact that email is anonymous. Errr.... no it's not. It's a common misunderstanding, but email is certainly not anonymous. I was kind of shocked to learn this at first, but no real terror struck me. So people can know who sent them an email, that's not very scary... Well, my friend, not only that, but furthermore, they KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. Yes, Big Brother is watching you! There's just one safeguard to stop 'them' from actually finding you. Just one, and of course 'they' are trying to chew down the barrier that guards your privacy even as you're reading this. Please read on, you're safe for now.

First of all, even if you don't sign your mail with your name, but replace it with something stupid, like nuclear squirrel, you still send along a signature in the mail. Now, normally you won't see it because there's no data there that will mean anything to most people. But believe me that it does mean something to other people. You can display that information in most email clients, but I can't say for sure (I use, Mozilla Thunderbird and that client has the option available). If you use a web-based service for your email (like Hotmail or Gmail) you might not be able to see it. If you were able to see it, it would not make a lot of sense to you (I'm assuming you don't program for web based services). It has a few tags (labels) that are standard for every email (where the mail was sent from, what address you should reply to, the timestamp excetera). This site has a great explaination of the inner workings of the email header.

Now, before I get too technical, I will tell you a little secret. I don't know diddly squat about email services or networking, but I was able to track the source of an email a friend sent me. I knew he was sending me an email from his university's mail service in The Netherlands. But had he been locked up in Guantanamo Bay and sent me an email from there I would have known too. Yeah, there you were thinking you could send emails around the world from your ivory tower, but ultimately you're just another dot on the map. Now, this technique isn't new at all. It's been around probably as long as the internet itself. And it really isn't that harmful... if it isn't used in the wrong way, that is.

You don't just leave traces in your email messages. You leave them on a message board when you post a message. You even leave them on almost every website you visit. Every picture you open, every file you download. Heck, when you reached this page, even before your browser displayed this text, a computer owned by Google, logged your presence here. Did I say that Big Brother was watching? He (it must be a he, otherwise it would be Big Sister) knows your every move!

I said that Big Brother was watching, but I also said that you were safe to read this page. You are, and there are a couple of reasons for that. First of all, the traces you leave on the internet are stored in hundreds of computers around the world. No one person or institution has access to all of them (phew). That information is never put together, so your surfing behaviour is smeared out across the globe and each trace is like one pixel of a huge photograph. That's why anyone will have a hard time pinning down what sites you read.

Second reason is that you can track anyone up untill a certain point. That certain point is your Internet Service Provider (ISP). They alone have information about your exact location. So, for instance, I can tell that my friend sends his email from his University (using this freeware program). I know that the university has a record of everyone in their system. I know that everyone who logs into the university's system has a unique access code which is listed in those records. Therefore, the university could tell me exactly who the person was that sent me an email, where he lives, when he was born, his social security number, what he studies and a range of other facts they have in their file. Fortunately, the university people won't give me his data and neither will they give it to anyone else. In most countries however, that data can be summoned by the cops (in some countries, a warrant is necessary, in others, it's not) if they suspected my friend of commiting some crime.

So there you go, that's how anonymous you are. Now, I hope I've convinced you that you enjoy a certain level of protection. You do, that is unless the judge says otherwise. The second thing I want you to be convinced of, is that access to your ISP is something that should happen only if there already is evidence on the table that you have comitted a crime, or are about to do so. And I will do so. Just not now, because I'm tired of sitting here, rebelling against government oppresion. It's time go outside and eat some flowers. Er, I mean, smell the flowers.

'Ta!

Is the Internet free?

(PART ONE IN A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON DIGITAL CIVIL RIGHTS. ENJOY.)

The internet started originally started out as a very efficient way to rapidly exchange pornographic materials. The reason they created such an extensive network back when is because they were nerds. They couldn't score any real females and so, at the advent of pornographic multimedia, the need aro(u)se to distribute and collect said material for life-enriching purposes. The internet was born!

A few pioneers saw the limitless possibilities of this borderless cyber-expanse and seized it by the throat. They quickly popularized the internet and soon people were naming their kids Yahoo! and Google. The true trademark of the net was, as it was originally, the possibility to share, explore and speak freely and anonymously. The net was in the hands of the people who had invented and expanded it.

unfortunately, as with most media, the wish for control began to increase in the minds of the powers that be. Governments were faced with a borderless, customless (custom as in border control), uncensored, untaxed, low-cost and anonymous medium that was open to a very large audience. This caused fear to arouse. Some of it was quite justifiable; for example: what would happen if Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf was published online? How to build a nuclear bomb? Read it here.

So part of the fear was justified. In some cases censorship is an evil we will have to live with. (In fact, evil and live are palindrome, so there you go.) Racist, discriminatory, "sensitive" material and top secret documents will sometimes need to be removed from the public domain. But even here, some people will protest and will do so with force. (Okay, not with a great deal of force, because most of them are nerds and are very rich by now, so who cares.) They believe that the internet is something outside of government control. It transcends government, country, race or creed; quite like pizza. And let's review the facts here: people invented the internet, made it their job to improve it, grew into it, made it into the biggest thing to come into this world since this kid; then, the common folks started invading, placing their stuff on the net, which is what the inventors wanted. But then, read it and weep, the government stepped in. (Yes, this is where this lovely story takes a frightfully unexpected twist, boys and girls!) They started telling people what they could or could not do on the net. Hey! We thought the internet was something that just sat on my computer or Bill's computer over there, or Steve's Mac! How come you're telling us what to do with our computers now? That's not right!

So that was four scores and a hundred years ago. Right now, we're way past that. The internet is somewhat controlled and somewhat free. Governments still don't have the power to stop things like peer-to-peer file sharing, though they're trying real hard. And they're not the only ones. More and more institutions (I'll just honestly come out and say that I'm referring especially to the MPAA and RIAA here) believe they have some sort of right to place limits on the internet usage of people completely unaffiliated with said institutions.

I know this doesn't sound scary to a lot of people. I mean, so we won't be able to post our blue prints of the White House online... Too bad, but hey, we can always crash a plane into something, right. But let's talk about civil rights here, shall we...? Actually, let's talk about that later. This seems to be enough for now. Think about what I said, because it's an important issue, really it is! Honestly.

I will return.

2 B continued!

The Straight Dope

Ever checked out this site? It's is probably the largest compendium of useless information available on the web. That's not to say that it's not mind-bogglingly interesting. The entire website is run by a guy named Cecil and apparently he lives in a library of encyclopedias. There's no other way to explain the extraordinary amount of useless trivia he generates each week. For example: why do people say Jesus H Christ? Here's Cecil's anwer:

The H stands for Harold, as in, "Our Father, who art in heaven, Harold be thy name" (snort).

Well, that is kind of lame, but read the entire article right here to see what else Cecil has to say about our heavenly Lord. Furthermore, how do lavalamps work; what does OK stand for; what are 'colitas' in the song Hotel California by The Eagles?

I know it's not the kind of knowledge that will get you far in life, but maybe you'll be just that little bit better at Trivial Pursuit (if that's your thing). I am a subscriber to the Straight Dope mailing list, so I receive these jewels of wisdom in my mailbox every friday.

Anyhoo, in other news: I'm going to the Queen + Paul Rodgers concert tonight in Ahoy! in Rotterdam. Yay! Looking forward to it, but alas I'm not such a die-hard fan as the regular concert fanatic and I'm not looking forward to standing in a crowd with a few thousand sweating, screaming, singing Queen maniacs. But that's how the deal comes and that's the way I'll have to take it. Better start practicing some songs so I don't stand out to much...

Dictionary.com Entry

2 entries found for dumbo.

dum·bo ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dmb) n. Slang pl. dum·bos A person regarded as stupid. An elephant with huge floppy ears from a Disney(tm) cartoon. (Fr.) A donkey. (dombeau) George Walker Bush (1946).

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Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.