Security and Privacy of Confidential Information in Email Accounts

Yesterday I read an article online about a internet privacy case in Canada. It said that Google been ordered by the Canadian Courts to give the identity of two Gmail users and they had complied. The article also suggests that all our email contents can be obtained by Government or a suing party by a court order very easily if they want... It also said the email the anonymity and the things we think belong to us like our email address are all a myth. We don’t really own them. That’s fine. We don’t really own our email accounts and usernames, even though that too is worrisome. But what about the confidential information in our email accounts that can be exposed and privacy breached and cause damage to us financially and in other ways?

If someone sues us or a government want to get at our details it’s it’s very easy for them to get all the details they want about us from our email address. If they want they can get all our mail chat records, the emails and other attachments we have sent through email accounts. This is a serious breach of internet privacy… Do we really have any privacy on the Internet.. I think not. If we use a mail account or any other email account for sometime we our bound to use it for many private things that we don’t want anyone to know like chatting with friends and sending our personal details like CVs and other kind of letters to companies, clients, sometimes saving confidential information of our other Internet dealing like on EBay, Paypal, other internet account usernames and passwords etc. If a court orders Google to open up a account to Government or another party then all our confidential information like the ones I mentioned will be compromised. The people who inspect our accounts whether Government Officials or the other suing party can’t be guaranteed to be honest and discreet about our sometimes most confidential information that they might find in our email accounts.

This is very serious. Just because someone sues they can’t be given our whole email or other account opened up. There should be a line drawn somewhere. If it is a genuine case, the government or someone else want some details all the details of the account holder mustn’t be given away. Instead only what is required and relevant must be disclosed…