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    did you know that if you capture all the packets in an SMTP transmission, dump their data and convert it back to text (unicode nowadays, used to be ascii), you can read the email with little or no modification? people refer to email as a postcard, because there is no envelope to hide it from view as it passes between your host and the server.
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Nov 26, 2013 at 12:58
  • @FrankThomas interesting!
    – Naughty.Coder
    Commented Nov 26, 2013 at 13:09
  • As you can tell from the answers, routers can easily sniff IP traffic. In particular, wireless access points are also routers (or bridges), and they are particularly easy to set up and entice people to use.
    – 200_success
    Commented Nov 26, 2013 at 17:17
  • 2
    @FrankThomas - this is true only if SMTP does not use TLS (by STARTTLS etc.). I thought most servers does not accept unencrypted SMTP from clients (however - I would not my first disappointment in people's approach to security).
    – Maja Piechotka
    Commented Nov 26, 2013 at 19:51
  • 2
    @MaciejPiechotka, TLS only encrypts point to point. (Not end to end) Each server can read the message in it's entirety and there is no guarantee that the server will use TLS anyway, even if you do.
    – user606723
    Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 20:32