Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The organised crime racket i Washington have the resources to scan e-mail content in transit.

Possibly it could be a question of problems with internal sharing of unconstitutionally obtained data, or it's cheaper to obtain the information through Yahoo's databases or Yahoo was hit up with this for other purposes.

If the mail content is not encrypted it matters less what provider is used, any unencrypted mail exchanged on Internet is in transit already scanned, indexed, analysed and archived by more than one stakeholder. There are probably dozens of state actors doing this in a general fashion and uncountable lesser state actors and different forms or organised crime and commercial actors that do it in a more targeted way.

Appart from that, my stance is stay as far as possible away from companies whose business model is to cannibalise on your private information i.e. Microsoft, Google, Facebook and basically any conventional "social media".
 
Last edited:
This is why Hillary had her own email server. 100% total control.
But Hillary is just another lizard. I think that's why Donald is still in the game. No matter how much he lies, he's not one of the lizards.

And those who don't know what "the lizard" means, can educate themselves with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The book trilogy in five parts.
 
How is this news, much less a surprise to anyone? Since the Patriot Act, we should not be expecting anything to be a secret unless encryption is on both ends and the emails end there.

In this decade, everything is assumed to be automatically collected by the government, though, whether they have the untiring manpower to go thru them all is doubtful, scanning keywords or not. Add text messages to this data, the fatigue factor compounds, becoming a massive hoard of junk. At best, they can be used after the fact to connect the dots.

Doesn't Verizon already own Yahoo!?
Obviously, most commenting here haven't worked in tech or telecom, so don't realize that this has been routine since the patriot act. It's called "lawful access" people.

The morons formerly at Yahoo blabbing this to the press...well...most people involved in this have to get top secret government clearance to work on the projects. Blabbing about it means you've committed a federal crime (inches away from treason).

This has been the norm ever since 9/11 - the PATRIOT act gave the government virtually limitless power in pursuing terrorists.

Any service companies saying that they've never done it? Well, that's only because that's all they're allowed to say.
 
I just terminated my yahoo account and my mom's. She only used it for chat and since I moved her over to trillian, no need for it. As for me, it's gone because I moved over to trillian and super rarely used my yahoo email.
 
To have a modern online life, most people have no choice but to trust companies with their data, such as emails in this case.

Now - I don't really trust any of them 100%, but since I have to choose I have chosen Apple because I distrust Apple the least, if that makes sense.
It makes perfect sense although I’m not sure whether I’d trust Apple least. They make a soon and dance but then you would wouldn't you.
Double edged sword but what sticks out to me here is that classified operations have been revealed. So you have to ask, ho many other organisations are keeping quite about classified things, including Apple.

As an employee you are expected to have intergity and keep data safe but as a citizen you’re also expected to have integrity and keep certain government things safe, even those things that went nowhere.
 
I'm beyond disappointed in this. I've had a Yahoo email account since sometime in the 90s and the email address is a part of who I am online. Yahoo has been increasingly frustrating to me over the last several years, but this is the last straw. It's time for me to leave them for good.
 
It's important to remember that Microsoft didn't do any program like Yahoo!'s because they willingly gave the NSA unlimited pre-encryption access to all Hotmail.com, Outlook.com and Skype communications without an order. And they presumably still provide this access having never said they stopped it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data

That makes Yahoo and all of Microsoft's e-mail and communications services the U.S. government was / is directly accessing.

Google, the biggest communication's honeypot of all (obviously the Bush/Obama Administrations weren't just going to forget about them), what secret orders (with gag orders attached) has the U.S. government had you doing during this time?

In Google's defense the secret splicing of Google's server farm network by the NSA / U.S. government (Snowden) may have made it so the Bush/Obama Administration didn't need a secret order for Google (they just stole it directly without Google knowing).

Serious question, is there a secure email available? I don't like my Gmail, not because of Google, because of the interface. I just don't like it. I have one hotmail and don't use since I have similar accounts on Yahoo. After the breach i was looking to move everything. Even more so now.

If your life is at risk, then no. But for privacy for regular users Proton Mail (put together by scientists in Switzerland after all the stuff came out from Snowden) is pretty good (the iOS app is very nice). The only downside is to keep the security the people you communicate with need to use it too. I use it with my family members, just because I like the idea of privacy.
 
Last edited:
BFD
Anyone who uses email for nefarious purposes is a moron.

Think of email as living in a glass house. Cuz that's what it is. Every keystroke we make on our computer is essentially logged. To believe otherwise is foolish.

Doesn't have to be nefarious to want privacy. Financial, medical, personal, intellectual property...
 
  • Like
Reactions: robeddie
why MR hasn't acted to prevent freedom of speech? This guy isn't entitled to an opinion because he isn't in sync with the politically correct American dream?
"Freedom of speech" is, exclusively, binding on the government, not private entities. People and companies have always implemented censorship in one form or another, and have every right to do so.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CarlJ and ptb42
According to two former employees, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's decision to obey the directive did not sit well with some senior executives and led to the June 2015 departure of Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos. Stamos now holds the top security job at Facebook, which incidentally just completed the rollout of end-to-end encrypted privacy features for its hugely popular Messenger app.

The original Reuters article, which ironically I read on Yahoo News, has more details about this.

The Yahoo security team wasn't informed about this directive. A small group of people from another part of the company implemented the directive, and it was detected within weeks by the security team. The security team thought it was the work of outsiders, and that Yahoo had been compromised.

But, when the report went to the CEO, that is when Stamos found out about the directive. He resigned in protest, and ended up at Facebook.
 
"Freedom of speech" is, exclusively, binding on the government, not private entities. People and companies have always implemented censorship in one form or another, and have every right to do so.
Says someone from Canada. I think you've missed the point.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huck
I have officially have had enough of the way politicians and authorities are behaving these days and they way they hold citizens in comtempt. Things need to dramatically change, and quickly.

Unfortunately, most voters don't see it that way. They are willing to believe in fairytales because it makes them feel good. Freedom is hard, and it takes sacrifice, which sadly enough most people are not willing to put forward.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 32828870 and idunn
. . . .

Google, the biggest communication's honeypot of all (obviously the Bush/Obama Administrations weren't just going to forget about them), what secret orders (with gag orders attached) has the U.S. government had you doing during this time?
. . . . .

Google is in bed with Obama and Hilary, so they won't have any issues unless the Donald is elected, then you can expect all heck to break out by them refusing to work with the government.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.