With the National Security Agency (NSA) monitoring our phone calls, now might be a good time to think seriously about the security of our email as well. In particular, you might want to think about encrypting your email, and about whether it's safe in the hands of third-party providers like Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft.

For many users, using encryption may seem like overkill, but Michael Lucas, author of PGP & GPG: Email for the Practical Paranoid , says that it's good to have the option whether you have something to hide or not. "It's simply something in my gut that says, 'I want the option to have privacy,' and I think a lot of people feel the same way."

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