Three Benefits to Using an Internet Remailer

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by Nelda D. Jenkins

Why would a person want to use an Internet remailer service, and for that matter, exactly what is an Internet remailer? Let's take the second question first. A remailer is anonymous, and is also called an anonymous server. An Internet remailer is free. The Internet remailer allows a person to send email to a person without that person knowing the name or email address that it came from. Internet remailers are generally free services, usually designed by people for their own personal use who then allow others to use them as well. The reason for them being free is rather simple: the people using them are concerned with privacy and are not likely to give out a credit or debit card number.

Why would you use an Internet remailer? Let's say you live in a community that has political controversy. You want to express your political views to others inside and outside of the community but wish to be anonymous to avoid retaliation. This could for example be a political controversy. By using an Internet remailer you are able to stay anonymous and still get your views across.

Now, let's say that you are looking for a new job. There are dozens of job boards out there to post your resume on, but you know that the HR people at your current company scan the job boards themselves, and if they find out you are looking for another job, then you are in danger of loosing the job you have prematurely. Using an Internet remailer allows you to target the companies you'd like to apply to secretly. You won't have to worry about the boss finding out what you are doing.

Quote of the Day

There’s a cool web of language winds us in,
Retreat from too much joy or too much fear:
We grow sea-green at last and coldly die
In brininess and volubility.

—Robert Graves (1895–1985)

Another use of Internet remailng services is to protect a whistle blower. If you work for the government for instance, and you discover something illegal going on and want to expose it, but want to do so in a manner that will keep you safe from retaliation an Internet remailer is useful. Imagine if, during the Watergate years, the Internet had existed. Rather than calling Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post and arranging dangerous meetings in parking garages, Deep Throat would simply have used an Internet remailer to send Woodward and Bernstein the information they needed.

How does an Internet remailer work? For a good example, look at the Internet remailer that was operated by Johan Helsingius. Helsingius is President of a Helsinki, Finland Company. When his service was in operation you could write to someone through his company and his computer would strip away your address and your name, replacing it with a dummy address and it would then forward the message to the recipient. His computer would also forward you your new anonymous address. Helsingius recently ceased operation of his remailer due to harassment from groups who disapproved, and because as he said there were many other services doing the same thing, so his was no longer as necessary as he felt it once was. There are more than a dozen public Internet remailers active right now, and the numbers change daily as they tend to come and go. This comes from the fact that they require time and money to maintain and produce no income.

Helsingius was interviewed in Wired Magazine recently and in the article he compared Internet remailers to telephones with caller ID and anonymous calling features. When caller ID first came out, many people were upset that their ID would be known. They were used to the phone being an anonymous device. That quickly led to an anonymous calling feature. Since the beginning of the telephone people were used to anonymity, and expected the same thing in email. Helsingius also stated that he was inspired in creating his Internet remailer by the oppression he had witnessed in the former Soviet Union. As a native of Finland he grew up next door to the Soviet Union and saw how they controlled ways of spreading information. For instance, in the Soviet Union if you owned a photocopier or a typewriter, samples of the product produced by the typewriter or copier had to be supplied to the government. Then they could trace information to you that came off of your machine. This control of the information flow is contrary to western thought and the ideal of freedom of speech and expression that is best exemplified in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, part of the American Bill of Rights. Helsingius believed that in creating a way to send email anonymously he was doing his part for freedom of speech.

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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Three Benefits to Using an Internet Remailer" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by WebDesignConferencing.com.

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