The Computer Privacy Handbook: A Practical Guide to E-Mail Encryption, Data Protection, and Pgp Privacy Software

Bacard provides an overview of surveillance, discusses cryptology, introduces Pretty Good Privacy (or PGP, a software program that protects personal and business data files and e-mail from snoops and other ill-willed sorts), and includes a user-friendly manual for using PGP on the PC. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Concerned about your privacy now that computers can track just about every area of your life? This book will make you worry even more as you read the gory details of ways computers have put our privacy in jeopardy. But you'll also learn what you can do to safeguard your electronic security. The book includes an easy-to-read manual for PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), an inexpensive e-mail encryption program.

More about The Computer Privacy Handbook

This is the scariest computer book of the year. It details the many ways our privacy is invaded by computers in this Age of Electronic Surveillance. With millions of e-mail messages exchanged daily, and zillions of bytes of online discussions buzzing across the Internet, privacy is a major concern. In an Equifax poll, 79 percent of respondents said they would like to "add privacy to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'" in the Declaration of Independence. This book tells how individuals can safeguard their electronic privacy using good encryption, proper data protection, and the right software.

The Computer Privacy Handbook consists of four major sections. The first gives a vivid description of how computers have created a surveillance age that threatens each citizen's personal security. The second offers a nontechnical introduction to data encryption and the U.S. government's Clipper Chip surveillance proposal for a chip that can keep information secret but that can also allow federal agents to unscramble the code. The third section provides a socio-political overview of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), the de facto world software standard for e-mail privacy. The last section is an easy-to-read PGP user's manual for the PC.