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Learn How to Protect Your Email Communication in Less Than 30 Minutes

Categories: Digital Activism
#EmailSelfDefense infographic by Journalism++ for the Free Software Foundation (CC BY 4.0) [1]

#EmailSelfDefense [1] infographic by Journalism++ for the Free Software Foundation (CC BY 4.0)

Email Self-Defense [2], a beginner's guide to email encryption by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), was released in six new languages [3] [fr [4]de [5]jp [6]ru [7]pt [8]tr [9]] on June 30, 2014. More languages are underway.

Even if you have nothing to hide, using encryption helps protect the privacy of people you communicate with, and makes life difficult for bulk surveillance systems. If you do have something important to hide, you're in good company; these are the same tools that Edward Snowden used to share his famous secrets about the NSA.

"Edward, a friendly email bot helps Email Self-Defense users test their new encryption systems." [10]

Edward, a friendly email bot, helps Email Self-Defense users test their new encryption systems.

FSF's guide was originally launched [11] as part of the Reset The Net [12] campaign on June 5, 2014 — a global day of action against bulk surveillance that marked the first anniversary of Edward Snowden's revelations about the US National Security Agency's (NSA) massive and indiscriminate global spying machine.

Email Self-Defense [2] is only one important piece of the solution to bulk surveillance,” FSF states:

While we learn email encryption tools, we also need to push politically to reign in surveillance, build a safer Internet [13], and force governments and companies to reduce the amount of data [14] they collect about us in the first place. We hope translated versions of Email Self-Defense can be the entry into this multifaceted movement for people all around the world.