Encrypt your Gmail Email!

Step 4 Open an anonymous Gmail account

Before you can encrypt anything, you need to make sure that you open a Gmail account that by no means can be traced back to you. This means that you have to be liberal about giving them your real name and address when you sign up. You should also always use a TOR server.

Comments

[Mark Regan]

But I thought that gmail automatically appends your IP address. Therefore, "big brother" can easily trace any encrypted message back to your computer and, with or without a search warrant, even via a "black bag job", find out what you typed even before it was encrypted. There is no easy, reliable method of ensuring that anything is confidential anymore.

[Cheswick32]

If u use TOR to surf gmail, u essencially cant be traced

[bijikenyot]

psssst......voice down

[sampablokuper]

I must be missing something. Why is it necessary to have an "anonymous" Gmail account? What if I want to be able to send GPG-encrypted messages from my regular Gmail account, for instance? Is that somehow insecure because it's not "anonymous"? Apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick; I just want to be sure my understanding's correct.

[stepnsteph]

There is nothing stopping someone from using their real email address. This is actually encouraged if you want to use encryption for professional purposes or if you want to grow your "web of trust". A PGP signed message is digitally signed and can therefore be traced back to you, unless of course you do not use your real name when you create your keys. You could do that if you wanted to go by a unique nickname. Doing so opens the (theoretical) possibility of someone impersonating you because it becomes impossible to verify your identity. If you live in an area of the world where your messages could get you arrested by the government or even killed then the anonymous account is definitely the way to go. Otherwise, it's probably not necessary, but it may be fun.

[sampablokuper]

Thought so. Thanks for the clarification!