Thomas Van Parys wrote:
Tine Blomme schreef:
I am naieve to think that it is safer to send private mails (aka gossip) via the gmail webinterface, rather than via thunderbird? You know, in case, big brother is watching me.... I hope that via the web, my gossip gets lost in all internet traffic from the building, and via thunderbird it can more easily be tracked. If this is a stupid question/thought, please forgive me; I try to believe I have other talents than computer stuff... :-)
You can encrypt your private mail connection using SSL (I only check my email over IMAP+SSL) and you can even let your Thunderbird encrypt the content of your mails using PGP if you're really paranoia.
I think it's better to use clients/protocols for what they are made for, instead of trying to push everything through port 80.
The GMail web client is ok, but for organizing, filtering, automatic checking, etc... is still much faster and more convenient to use an actual client. And not everybody uses GMail for their private mailbox. I have eg. my own mailbox at gandi.net, but I'm not fond of the web client(s) they are providing. Oh, and don't forget Google is reading your emails :-)
And someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're sending your conversations in plain text and someone really wants to eavesdrop, it as easily read when it's packaged in HTTP as in IMAP and SMTP.
T. Yes, if it's not encrypted it is just as easily readable. The point that Tine was making (I think) is that, due too the sheer number of traffic on port 80, you really have to start digging through a lot of http-data (ok, you can use reg exp's to determine whether or not it is webmail data). Still, a lot easier to just filter on protocol than to filter by doing deep-packet inspection. :)
-- ================================================================== Michiel Van Bel PhD student Tel:+32 (0)9 331 36 95 fax:+32 (0)9 3313809 VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University Technologiepark 927, 9052 Gent, BELGIUM mibel@psb.ugent.be http://www.psb.ugent.be ==================================================================