Email Technology

Incompetent Encryption Is Worse Than No Encryption

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          August 17, 2020

When you think of email security, you probably think of encryption. This is not the most important aspect of email security — your email server is, see About Apscitu Mail — but email encryption can add another layer of security, which is generally good. You might not use email encryption because you think the NSA, and more competent hackers, can break the encryption, but you are wrong; see No, The NSA Does Not Have Encryption-Breaking Quantum Computers. Or you might not use email encryption because it seems too complicated to use. In that case, you are right. Studies show that even the most user-friendly email encryption system is too difficult for even above-average users to use competently. And incompetent encryption is worse than no encryption because you are lulled into a false sense of security and insecurely send more, and more sensitive, data than you would otherwise. You might go looking around for some one-size-fits-all solution to your email encryption, particularly if you are someone like a whistleblower trying to contact the media, or vice versa, but you would be wrong then too. Your getting competent email encryption requires an IT expert working closely with you, i.e. custom work, like with Apscitu Mail. In that case, you would be right.

Your Friends Get By (Google) With A Little Help From You

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 1, 2020

Recently I was doing business with a company that I discovered was unknowingly losing customers due to Google's spam filter. Like many businesses, and government and universities, the company used Google Mail (see Google: Invasion of the Email Snatchers). Gmail was automatically sending customers' emails to the spam folder, which they rarely if ever checked — and Gmail spam is automatically deleted after 30 days — or was rejecting customers' emails outright, without notifying the company (see Whitelists, Blacklists, and the Great Spam Filter Scam).

So the company was losing customers without even knowing it. Losing customers is literally money out of the company's pockets. This is every company's nightmare. They spend a small fortune on advertising (including to Google) and when it works, the acquired customers are ignored (by Google).

Biggest Turnoff: Gmail Spam Filter

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          June 27, 2019

I mentioned Google Mail's (Gmail's) spam filter in Whitelists, Blacklists, and the Great Spam Filter Scam, particularly how it reads your emails and censors them based on content and probably sender too. As discussed in Google: Invasion of the Email Snatchers, most have surrendered their email to Big Brother Google and think they have to do email however Google says, including using its spam filter. You can actually turn off the Gmail spam filter, although Google tries to hide and discourage this, and until you get Apscitu Mail, this turnoff is the biggest thing you can do to protect yourself.

When you get a Gmail account, the spam filter is on by default, with no option given to turn it off. Whenever Google deems an email you receive to be spam, including because its content is politically incorrect or because it was sent from a rival email service provider, it gets sent to the Gmail spam folder.

Whitelists, Blacklists, and the Great Spam Filter Scam

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          June 15, 2019

Spam is unwanted email and is often dangerous and offensive. Dangerous because it is a leading hacking method (e.g. phishing) and offensive because it often involves porn. Spam has become such a big problem that many people have drastically reduced or even stopped using email. This is an incredible waste since email is the best form of communication — you can inexpensively and instantly send large amounts of text, documents, photos, audio, and video at any time and it can all be sent securely. Spam filtering is used to address the problem but the most common methods — because they are the most profitable to the companies that produce them — are frustratingly bad, often causing the loss of important wanted emails while still allowing dangerous and offensive spam. There is a simple, free, highly effective spam filtering method, whitelists, but spam filter producers and email service providers don't want you to use them because they are free and highly effective.