but even if you can delete your mail from your mailhost after downloading it to your private machine, isn't the point that the NSA probably collected the email before it even hit your mailhost?
However, I think responses like this create tension between the companies agreeing to give their information, and the government. If google, yahoo, and facebook start to lose money they might potentially fight legislation like this going forward and may advocate in reverting these policies.
There is nothing wrong with the argument, it is sound logic, and reasonable. In fact, I agree with it. No, this comment made me recoil because for a second, it made me envision a reality where our political influence, as people, can only be exercised through corporations.
And, (maybe, I confess, because I am so deep into the lecture of cloud atlas) I can't help but sense that it is a dangerous road to be embarked on. But these are just my two cents...
In this scenario, the NSA wiretaps will get direct access to any email sent over unencrypted connections to the ISP mailserver, but they'll have to work harder to get at the encrypted data.
Of course, as we know they've suborned the encryption used by many, many organisations so this is no guarantee of protection against an NSA fishing expedition, but it's a lot better than nothing.