Encrypted Communications Company Recommends Avoiding Email Altogether

Metadata can't be protected, says Silent Circle executive

When American firm Silent Circle shut down its Silent Mail encrypted-email service earlier this month, it claimed that "e-mail as we know it today is fundamentally broken from a privacy perspective".

Now the company has been elaborating on the claim in response to questions about why it couldn't just use an asymmetric key cryptography plug-in for email applications to secure communications between its users.

In short, it's all about the metadata.

"If the goal is simply to encrypt the body of the message there are services and products that accomplish this," explained Silent Circle's technical operations manager Louis Kowolowski in a blog post.