Very, any email that does not stay on the same network (i.e. yahoo to yahoo, gmail to gmail etc.) is usually transmitted in plaintext and will pass through any one of a number of routers that the NSA is using to sniff traffic.
Shameless plug- a rant by me on the topic of little to no security when communicating on the net, even when using encryption.
No no I don't mean the feasibility of it I mean the actual accuracy of it: do we have any reason to think the NSA etc. is SAVING every email sent? Beyond sniffing etc.
They cannot possibly process that much email in realtime and terabytes of storage is dirt cheap (especially on an endless government spy budget) hence the storage.
I am betting gmail poses a real problem for them because so many people use it, but since one of the google founders has ties to the CIA, you can be sure they have an official backdoor.
'but since one of the google founders has ties to the CIA, you can be sure they have an official backdoor.'
Source? Never heard that...
So they are realtime STORING all that stuff, but not processing it? DOesn't this mean it's constantly growing and eventually will become impossible to process unless they really speed up the processing right?
Shameless plug- a rant by me on the topic of little to no security when communicating on the net, even when using encryption.
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/dublinclontarf/blog/2010/04/13/cry...