GETTING ONLINE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 3. Internet Privacy Issues

Can I protect my identity when sending email messages?

When you send an email message, you are also sending quite a bit of information about yourself that you may not be aware of. Along with the contents of the message, a single message also contains your name, email address, the date and time the message was sent, and who the message was copied to (Figure 18).

Date sent: Tue, 26 May 1998 12:02:33 -0400 To: rjones@rights.org CC: wgreen@hralert.org.nl BCC to: "ASMITH" asmith@abcd.org From: Andrea Johnson ajohnson@abcd.org Send reply to: Andrea Johnson ajohnson@abcd.org Priority: normal

Figure 18: A typical email message header

Use Anonymous Remailers

In some instances, if you send sensitive information by email, you could possibly jeopardize your safety and/or that of the recipient. An anonymous remailer is an Internet service to which you send your email message, along with a forwarding address (which is the intended recipient’s email address). The remailer then strips out any information identifying you as the sender and then sends it on to its intended destination (Figure 19).

To: rjones@rights.org cc: (bcc: "RJONES" RJONES@rights.org) From: Anonymous nobody@remailer.ch Subject: <no subject>

Figure 19: Header of an email message after being
sent through an anonymous remailer

Sending a message anonymously guarantees only that the sender is not identified. If intercepted, the interceptor will know the identity of the recipient by the email address given and will also be able read the contents of the message. To keep the contents of a message private, see Section 3, Use Encryption.

There are many anonymous remailers available on the Internet.^[18] To try one, connect to the Anonymizer™ Web site at http://www.anonymizer.com/ ^[19]

» Private Idaho ä

Private Idaho ^[20] is a software program for Microsoft Windows that coordinates sending outgoing email messages through various anonymous remailers. It also assists in using the encryption program PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy")^[21] with email programs and supports posting to Usenet newsgroups via anonymous remailers.

How can I protect my privacy on the Internet?

Browse the Web Anonymously

There may be times that you will want to protect your identity while using the Web to locate organizational sites or to conduct research. While browsing through Web sites, you might stumble across an unknown site that is maintained by a government as a front (see Section 2, How can I be sure of the authenticity of information on the Internet? for an example of this) or land on a site which may start sending you unwanted emails and solicitations (see Avoid Cookies in this section). There is an Internet service available called Anonymizer™ that allows you explore the Internet anonymously. This site can be used as a home base for accessing other sites. The server will access a site, retrieve requested documents, and present them to you. Your identity never reaches the contacted site.^[22]

Avoid Cookies

When you contact a World Wide Web site with your browser, you are potentially supplying the host system with more information than you think. Depending on how the host is configured, it can collect such information as dates, times, the number of times you accessed the site, and links that you followed (and, it is assumed, read). This information is usually stored in something called a cookie. A cookie is a small computer file containing certain information about you that is stored on your computer. Each time you contact the site that created and sent you that cookie, the server of that site reads the contents of the cookie file. Cookies cannot be used to get data from your hard drive, obtain your email address, or steal other sensitive information.^[23] Their purpose is generally to save any personal preferences that you specified for use at that site, or your user name and password for automatic access to the site. But, if someone gets physical access to your computer, these cookies can provide information about when, where, and how often you visited particular Web sites.

You can configure your Web browser so that each time a site attempts to send a cookie, you will be alerted. Luckman’s Anonymous Cookie for Internet Privacy™ is a free utility program for Windows ’95/98 and Windows NT that allows you to disable all cookies in your browser’s cookie directory or file.^[24]

Use Encryption

Never assume that your email is private, either what you send or what you receive. Sending an email message is as secure as sending a postcard through the traditional mail system. Just as anyone who handles the postcard can read it, so it is with electronic mail messages. For mail to reach its destination, it must pass through numerous computers before reaching the recipient. Anywhere along the way, it can be intercepted, read, altered, resent, or redirected. It is particularly important in human rights work to protect your mail from being read or altered. In addition to attaching a digital signature to your messages or documents (see Section 2, Sign Your Messages Digitally), PGP offers one of the highest degrees of encryption available today and is widely used by human rights organizations throughout the world. By using PGP, you can encrypt a message so that it can only be decrypted and read by its intended recipient (Figure 20).^[25]

To: rjones@rights.org cc: (bcc: "RJONES" RJONES@rights.org) From: Anonymous nobody@remailer.ch Subject: <no subject> -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: PGP for Business Security 5.5.2 hQCMA4Lm8FJDivrpAQP+JEEZTCTKhtFMEGuQWhAlCHYIS2gd6S4N+EdLMK6lP5qt tdkiESp1Nktz40ciF0ojupYeGlYiR0YbSdwolIXWZXqJxbR7p7ogN5NuqM5JfeBt dOWN7J3EzRZIkYjeIMOYALfrhAfjZN77Ve4h5++uyIw0Tz8bsJDm//DkHwRsl2SF Aw4DJIwSbVDJDYQQDADGNnz9B47l0nK08IGfizhvvkL58GotLxEoUrjvG6TkSjMS 5Khrb/SQcxrK/k4UZwlernaS8sW0dqg3FrbYheY8H+60IjD7rL6Ni+IA6OAneM/s zB+QzK7cQ/bZPkj0sK+m8M9paHri6+wg8xyMTTVYmns2F2EkjOScVM/jMg7Zae4/ r7pZ1tGRFSaexzsDIPkMpCRfyt9owXkuU9mB4RGQbeOffJyhNdgnOPbw/GprGgFc 2ZwKYSJXEp+bX2sXfXXLwqzSP2mc/phSCLwLOwNT7NppAvgi9kWizqQQSk5ePca0 WyRcAdDHIclzLFu/qB+z =qxBZ -----END PGP MESSAGE-----

Figure 20: An email message encrypted with PGP and sent via an anonymous
remailer

PGP is available for DOS, Windows 95/98/NT and Macintosh computers. With the advent of Version 5, PGP has become much easier to learn and use. The Windows and Macintosh versions (5.5.2.) allow for the installation of PGP plug-ins (add in options) for several email programs (e.g. Eudora and Microsoft Exchange). With the use of plug-ins, you simply need to press a button in your email program to automatically encrypt or decrypt a message (Figure 21).

 

Figure 21: Eudora Light with PGP plug-in buttons (inset)