Yesterday we received a support ticket from our potential customer and I would like all of our users to read the question and the answer to it, as it might be interesting for all of our users:
Q:
I read your site with great interest. However, I need to ask you a question with regards to email privacy. I can see that you offer secure connection between my computer and your server, but when my emails travel to the recipient it can be intercepted anyway, right? Or, if it is not intercepted, it is still on the server of the recipient… I’m not an IT expert but I was thinking about this and think it is not really possible to keep an email private. I’ve read that there is PGP, but then I have to convince the recipient to install PGP and show him how to work it, which I don’t have the time for at all.
Please tell me if there is a different solution or why I should choose your company despite this security gap.
A:
SmartHide really encodes traffic from a user’s PC to our server only. In 95% of cases it is sufficient for e-mail protection. The fact is that most often e-mail interception is performed on “early stages”, i.e. when the e-mail passes through the network of your local ISP. It’s worth mentioning that Wi-Fi networks are the most vulnerable here. In this case practically anyone can access your e-mails. Further on, when the e-mail leaves your local ISP network it is being forwarded to bigger data transfer companies. The traffic volume in such companies is so big that tracking a single e-mail requires great financial expenses and is technically complicated at the same time. SmartHide servers are located exactly in such big networks servicing big companies and corporations, but not end-users. It is also necessary to mention that if the law violation occurs (spam sending, etc.), a person committing illegal acts is tracked down and his/her personal data is submitted to the corresponding authorities.
Thus, SmartHide to the great extent protects its users from intruders who are trying to get hold of their confidential data. Please note that currently SmartHide does not work with certain corporate mail services because of their spam protection methods – they allow users to send e-mails from their network only, whereas SmartHide changes IP address and the sender’s network after the startup. We will fix this bug in the forthcoming product versions. With all other public mail services like GMail, Yahoo Mail, etc. SmartHide operates ideally.
As for PGP – it is really a powerful tool for data protection, including electronic correspondence. If the program has been set up correctly, it provides the complete protection of your e-mails during the whole way, up to the recipient. But as you have rightly mentioned, the setup of this product is quite difficult for a user, it requires a profound documentation analysis. Additionally not all mailing software supports PGP and both of the users should have it installed and set up. And here we would like to draw your attention to the fact that if the users with whom you are exchanging e-mails install SmartHide, the protection level will increase considerably.
