Receiving an encrypted email might make you feel slightly better but did you ever think about how many BCCs may be going on with your email confirmations? It's very common practice for order confirmation emails to be BCCed to various individuals/departments within an ecommerce environment. Some of the users accessing these accounts may be doing so remotely on POP3 connection (i.e., in the clear.) You have no control over the way a company handles your order data behind the scenes.

I guess the only way to be 100% safe is to not order any porn. Then there's no paper trail or data to sniff on the web.

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From what I know, if there is questionable/illegal material being distributed, the feds will go after the retailer not the consumer....

the girlfriend/wife problem is a little different : )

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No, I'm not worried about legal trouble, since I live in NYC, which has no community standards (that I can see anyway). Every news/magazine stand has a rack in the back with 10 year old VHS porn on display, probably bootlegged.

And no, I'm not worried about my Significant Other objecting to porn.

I think what brought about my question is the continuing erosion of privacy, which has been accelerated by the 9/11 tragedy. People seem to be willing to trade away civil liberties for perceived security. I emphasize the word perceived.

This is rapidly becoming a cause for concern, for me at least. Guys like John Ashcroft scare the bejezus out of me. This guy would be right at home in Stalinist Russia.

And if you think your life is private, just get a copy of your credit report from one of the credit reporting agencies. And they own your private data to boot, not you.

Anyway, it was just a thought/question. And no, I'm not going to stop buying porn.

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