Protect Yourself Against Email Snoops

Don't let your email come back to haunt you! Follow these basic precautions you should take when sending or receiving sensitive email messages.

By Joe Ebner

This whole Monica Lewinsky thing has brought an important issue to the forefront. No, the issue is not whether President Clinton and Ms. Lewinsky were taking intimate work breaks in the White House, but the fact that investigators could so easily retrieve email messages from Lewinsky's computer.

Now, let's stop and think about this for a minute. Investigators scanned for, and easily retrieved, Lewinsky's email messages. Messages she thought were deleted.

This can have some serious implications for us regular folk. Just imagine. All of the email messages you have ever sent could be sitting there on the computer you used to send them. And, they are very easy for just about anyone with prying eyes to read.

Chances are that you will never be the focal point of an FBI investigation but you should take some precautions with your email -- especially any messages that can be even remotely construed as, shall we say, sensitive.

A quick check

Most people pay little attention to technology. Further, most people don't take the time to understand how it works. That's fine. Not everyone is a technogeek. Be prepared to face the fact that you can get busted by someone who is and take some precautionary measures.

As an example, if you use Netscape Navigator or Communicator try clicking on the "Sent" folder in the mail client. If you haven't cleaned this folder out it contains every email message you ever sent. Internet Explorer users can click on the "Sent Items" folder to get the same result. And, if you use America Online you're not immune either. The "Mail You've Sent" folder will show the same thing.

Find something you didn't expect? Here's how to get rid of it. Select all those messages with your mouse pointer and hit the delete key. If you want to delete only certain messages, highlight only those you wish to delete. This simple procedure alone will hide your messages from casual snoopers.

Now, go into your "Trash" folder and delete them again. This is important because the deleted messages are not really gone until you empty the trash folder.

While you're at it go into your email program's preferences and change the configuration so that a copy of the email you send is not sent to another folder.

If you think you might be on the receiving end of sensitive mail, do the same for messages received.

Other email tips

If you need to send or receive sensitive email either at work or home there are a few precautions you can take to reduce the risk of others viewing your messages.

Pay attention to the address. Many people don't and your message can end up being delivered to a complete stranger. Or maybe even someone you DO know but was not intended for them. (For a humorous example of just this sort of mistake read the related article.)
Don't share an email account with anyone.
Don't give out your password under any circumstances.
Email accounts at work can be easily monitored. Messages stored on centralized servers and mainframes have a tendency to hang around for years. For this reason it's unwise to use your work account to send or receive personal or sensitive material.
Most companies have in-house experts that can easily retrieve messages you thought you had deleted. Again, take extreme caution.
Because email messages are simple text files, they can be easily forged, altered, or read by anyone at just about any time without leaving any evidence.

More Precautions

If you find that you must send sensitive or very personal messages from work, or even at home, use one of the free email accounts available from Hotmail, Juno, or Yahoo!. These are every bit as easy to use as your regular account and a lot safer.

You can also use encryption programs that were developed for just this application. These change your messages into a secret code that can only be deciphered by someone who has the key. As a matter of fact, the developer of an encryption program called PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) was the center of a U.S. State Department investigation and prosecution because it was so good. (The charges were later dropped.) You can download this free program from the PGP Web site. Another fine encoding program is Invisimail from RPK Ltd.

The main problem with using encryption schemes is both the sender and recipient must remember to use it. And if you send an encoded message the individual receiving it must use the same program to decode it.

Use Common Sense

People who are new to the Internet are often overwhelmed by the whole idea of it. So much so that they forget some of the more common sense rules for using it. Or, maybe someone has told them a few things about the network that are simple not true.

No matter what anyone else has told you about Internet security, the Internet is not a secure network. A little forethought before you compose and send sensitive messages goes a long way to protecting yourself from those who want to snoop around.

Remember the golden rule: It's better to be safe than sorry.