When the FOSTA-SESTA bill was passed into law there was a rush of sex workers and clients moving from Gmail to the enhanced security of Protonmail. Since then I’ve noticed a backlash to Protonmail, with complaints about its reliability resulting in some people moving back to Gmail. At the same time I’ve also observed some confusion about the security issues involved, with comments like “Gmail uses encryption anyway” or “I’m on a VPN, so why does it matter?” Obviously, everyone can make their own judgement call about utility vs security, but I’d like that decision to be an informed one. Hence, this post to dig into the issues.
When it comes to encryption, Gmail does use an encrypted connection between you and their servers. That’s nothing unusual. So does pretty much every internet service that carries personal data (banking, shopping, email, etc). That’s necessary to stop people in your building, coffee shop or IT department sneaking a look at what you’re sending and receiving. Obviously this is a good thing, but pretty much irrelevant when it comes to law enforcement. Even if they could do it (which they can’t), they’re not going to try and hack your internet connection and reconstruct your emails from the data you send.
Similarly, while a VPN (virtual private network) is generally a good thing for privacy, it’s irrelevant when it comes to law enforcement and email. Normally, even with encrypted connections, it’s still possible to see what sites someone is visiting. With a VPN, a remote computer (typically in another country) makes all those connections for you, and you just have a single encrypted connection to the VPN. That’s great if you don’t want someone to be able to trace your interactions with sites like eros or slixa, but kind of pointless when it comes to Gmail. If you’ve got a public web presence tied to a known email account, there’s absolutely no value trying to hide the fact you’re connecting to that email service. The fact you’ve got the email address on your website proves that you must be using the service.
The key difference between Protonmail and Gmail is how the data is stored on the email servers. In Protonmail the data is encrypted so that even the people running Protonmail can’t read it. That is absolutely not true for Gmail. Google’s entire business model is based on mining user data. In some cases it’s even possible for third parties to access the data. As Google describes here, they will produce the content of your Gmail account in response to a search warrant. And, as they document here, they produced user data for around 80% of the legal requests they receive each month. So if a prosecutor has your Gmail address and a search warrant, he can read your emails. The bar for obtaining a search warrant is simply showing probable cause. That is not a high bar. In contrast, even if US law enforcement managed to get hold of Protonmail data, it would be a jumble of meaningless numbers. They’d need the account password to make sense of it.
One could argue that there are easier and more likely ways for law enforcement to hassle sex workers than trying to access their email accounts. Or that if an investigation has reached the point of getting search warrants, it’s unlikely to be stopped simply by a lack of email data. However, in the current climate, I tend to take the view that safer is always better. Would you want to bet against the possibility of a prosecutor going on a fishing expedition after scraping the web for pro-domme and escort email addresses? Or getting hold of the data from sites like eros or slixa and then using some bullshit sex trafficking story to get a load of warrants signed off? No tech company is going to want to be perceived to facilitate sex trafficking, even if the trafficking story is a fiction with zero relationship to reality.
As I said at the beginning of the post, the utility vs security trade-off is a matter for individual judgement. But nobody should assume that there isn’t a trade-off involved here. Gmail and Protonmail offer very different levels of privacy. Personally, even though pro-domination is legal and I only engage in non-sexual BDSM activities, I’ve switched to Protonmail for my personal account.
If anyone has questions about any of this feel free to leave a comment. I’m absolutely not a legal expert, but I do know a bit about computers and networks. I also added some follow-up thoughts in a subsequent post.
This domme certainly takes security seriously. She doesn’t ever turn her computer on. That’s hardcore security.
As far as I can tell the website originally associated with this image has ceased to exist.
It’s doubtful it would get to this level for a sex worker, but if the authorities were really trying to put a person down they might be able to get a targeted subpoena for the persons she’s communicating with. Unless that person also uses an encrypted email service like Protonmail, their emails would be stored in the clear, ripe for discovery.
That’s an interesting point, and one that has been raised in a few twitter threads I’ve seen. If the everyone isn’t using encryption, is it worth anyone doing it? I think it’s a point worth tackling in a follow-up post that I’ll shoot for in the next day or so. So look out for that for the long answer :). I think the short answer is that while it’s better if everyone used encrypted email, the fact that some people don’t doesn’t invalidate the whole thing. It always comes down to a balance of probabilities and reducing risk where possible.
-paltego
You mean that idea isn’t original to me???
I’m crushed.
Privacy is necessary if you want freedom to choose. That privacy is under siege like never before. This morning I read an article in The Guardian, a British newspaper, about how ‘anonymized’ data is far from anonymous.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/13/anonymous-browsing-data-medical-records-identity-privacy
Me, I’m neither an IT professional nor lawyer. With your background in IT, my suggestion would be to share your skills and write a series of posts on how stuff works and how to deal with it, from a technical point of view. The simpler your writing, the more helpful it is for your readers.
One half about what those regulations mean, my guess is that most people don’t realize just how intrusive certain laws will turn out. The second part about the options people have, like your post on Proton versus Gmail.
Try to make sure your writing passes the online censorship test, it will be easier for search engines to index your content. Do that and you can publish a copy of relevant posts on a neutral website you start. You don’t have to pay for it, just use one of those free WordPress blogs.
Call it “tech talk”, “community service”, “gearheads for goddesses” or anything else, but your particular tech knowledge, combined with the respect for people of all walks of life you express in your writing, is extremely valuable and can help fight the inevitable hurricane that is coming. Just keep it simple, one step at a time. For instance a series on VPN, followed by a number of posts on encryption. After that you can write about privacy. Baby steps for people like me. You can always link to a later post where you explain how topics are connected.
Note: most likely I come across as condescending. That’s not what I mean but once again, my native tongue is Dutch. Apologies.
Absolutely not condescending :). I agree with the need for privacy as a fundamental human right. Writing the kind of articles you suggest would be interesting. My fundamental problem is a lack of time. I only just get the time to blog here, and even then, it’s not as much time as I’d like. For those kind of articles being accurate and giving advice that can be translated into simple actions is essential. Giving misleading advice would be worse than no advice, and I’m not sure I have the time to ensure I can deliver the quality that’d be necessary. I’ll keep the idea in mind however. Maybe I can write some more technical stuff here over time and then condense and summarize it later.
Thanks for the link. Interesting article. I was discussing it over drinks with a friend tonight. It touches on a lot of technical areas we’re both involved with.
-paltego
I have really mixed feelings about Protonmail. It seems like a great company, and I’m glad its out there. The technical point about having the mail spools encrypted on the server is an important one, and I’ve seen a lot of people say things about Protonmail that get that wrong.
But I think that people who count on encryption to protect them from the government are mostly kidding themselves. The police can just arrest someone and forcibly the target’s finger on the phone’s scanner to unlock the mail. Even if that didn’t work, they can bring a ton of pressure to bear on someone to unlock their phone.
Cops harass sex workers all the time, very often violating their rights, without using exotic surveillance techniques. This isn’t a technical problem, it’s about politics and what kind of a society we want to live in.
A few years ago in NYC the cops raided a few dungeons, after decades of tolerance. And the professional scene pulled back quite a bit, it’s still much quieter than it had been. If they start arresting people nationwide, even a small number of people, the whole thing will just dry up. It won’t matter if we’re all using Signal or Protonmail.
I’m not sure I agree that if they started arresting a small number of people nationwide, the whole thing will dry up. I think sex workers are more resilient than that and more invested in their work than that. Although obviously there’s going to be a significant correlation between the degree of hassle and legal issues and the number of people who choose to work in a particular area.
As for the broader point, I think it’s worthy of a follow-up post, so watch out for that for a more detailed response. Encryption is clearly not a magic bullet. At the same time defense if depth is a valid technique. The things always devolve into a time/cost/effort/risk trade-off. So there is safety in increasing the time/cost/effort it takes to hassle a sex worker, even if it doesn’t guarantee safety for any single individual. I absolutely agree if a cop targets a particular sex worker then they can make life miserable and are unlikely to be too fussy about their rights. At the same time, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to make it harder to target large groups of sex workers.
-paltego