How To Stop The Barbados Government From Reading Your Emails

The Government of Barbados recently invoked a secret law to allow government agents and police to read the emails of Barbados citizens without the necessity of a search warrant signed by a judge.

Do You Mind If The Government Reads YOUR Email?

As first revealed in our article Secret Order In Council Cancels Privacy Rights – Invokes Executive Powers – Barbados Government Takes The First Step Towards The Abyss, Prime Minister Owen Arthur is corruptly using government executive powers and the police for the purpose of identifying and countering his political opposition.

Part of the plan involves the forced co-operation of Barbados internet suppliers to identify readers of Barbados Free Press and Barbados Underground. Once readers of these “subversive” (read “pro-democracy and accountability”) blogs are identified, the government regularly scans their emails for evidence or information that could be used against political opposition or citizens who call for accountability.

As well, our sources indicate that the private communications of high-profile members of the Democratic Labour Party are also being monitored through these new and secret laws.

For any Bajan citizens who have doubts about the government’s willingness to engage in such unethical and anti-democratic behaviour, we urge you to read our original article (link here). We also urge all Barbadians who value democracy and their own privacy to take some simple steps that will make it very difficult for government agents to read their emails. This is the first of a series of articles that will look at widely available tools and technologies that will empower Bajans and all our readers to maintain their privacy and freedom to communicate without fear of government reprisals.

Your “Private” Emails Are Not Private

When you log into Cable & Wireless, Sunbeach or any internet supplier (ISP), and then send an email to a friend, lover or business acquaintance, your message is sent “in the clear” as it is transfered from your computer to your ISP and then over the internet to its final destination. Copies of your email are to be found in several locations along the way even after the email is received or deleted by you or the recipient.

The Barbados government is able to look at those emails and it is doing so. How to stop them from reading your emails? Easy…

Encrypt Those Emails – It’s Easy!

When you use one of the widely available free email encryption programmes or web-based email services, no one except your intended recipient is able read your email.

Under normal circumstances, a government agent working with your internet supplier might see this email in transit…

“From: bobtheorganiser@sunbeach.net

To: davidleader77@sunbeach.net

Hello David,

I have attached the timetable for our candidate’s walk through Grape Hall next Wednesday afternoon. We’ve invited some of our well known members to accompany the candidate, and we’ve arranged for everyone to have some lunch at the home of Auntie Moses – one of the respected ladies from the local church. Be in Grape Hall at 10am sharp.

Robert”

When you use one of the encrypted email services, the government chap who is reading your emails sees something like this…

—–BEGIN PGP MESSAGE—–
Version: 7.1

xHzudLHwn4xI287VR4fhEgc5SwIAN2fcJOLdIkdh/6GS4Cy7h
qn8QDE/TrN2KQeh84QHpRxRBQb5Fb758eQ/sPS6QF4awsCE
oiO9oRcJjJ07WJbCTsi2xKyTp9T4JkmNSmXc6V85V9QOwQ
xnSMrkZYCu3OxP3F4bJloyupwzRLhkmWOGYT5hNOCiqy2K
3vzt7fczzFddQ/7rCdK6o8JYTaL8mmU4f9QGZ6QdkzoA0URE

—–END PGP MESSAGE—–

Big Difference!

The simplest way to implement encrypted email is to go to a free service like HushMail.com. Once you create an account, you can compose your emails at the HushMail website without the government being able to read your message – either while you are typing it or when it is in transit. Because of the secure connection between your PC and Hushmail, your message will remain private until it is viewed by the intended recipient.

HushMail has several other features – one of which is to let you send out an unencrypted email from the HusMail server. In that way, the government will not see the email going out from your computer. Yes, the government might know that you are visiting HushMail, but they won’t know what you are writing or to whom. The same goes with receiving mail.

If you use HushMail as your email address, folks will send emails to HushMail, and then you can log on securely and read them without the government being able to read them.

There are other encrypted email solutions, but for ease of use and zero cost (free is good!) HushMail is a good choice. If we all use HushMail or other encrypted email on a regular basis, it will drive the government thugs nuts!

Next article we will talk about a programme called PGP – Pretty Good Privacy – and all the things it can do to keep your computer data private.