Brazil to roll out secure email system in bid to protect citizens from PRISM

Want your emails safe from the prying eyes of the US security apparatus? Then maybe you should consider relocating to Brazil.

The Latin American powerhouse has announced plans to develop a secure email system aimed at protecting its government level communications from US spying.

As spotted by The Register, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff took to Twitter to explain that she’d ordered SERPRO — the country’s federal data processing service — to build a secure email service for the entire government.

In the series of tweets shown below, she says that Brazil needs “more security on our messages to prevent possible espionage”:

Determinei ao Serpro implantação de sistema seguro de e-mails em todo governo federal (cont)

— Dilma Rousseff (@dilmabr) October 13, 2013

Esta é 1ª medida p/ ampliar privacidade e inviolabilidade de mensagens oficiais.

— Dilma Rousseff (@dilmabr) October 13, 2013

É preciso + segurança nas mensagens p/ prevenir possível espionagem.

— Dilma Rousseff (@dilmabr) October 13, 2013

According The Reg, the agency tasked with implementing the system is also responsible for Brazil’s secure online tax system and the issuing of passports.

Relations between Brazil and the US have been strained since the revelation of the US’ PRISM programme by whistleblower Edward Snowden. In late September, she addressed the UN on her concerns about the US spying on her country’s government conditions.

“We are … confronting a case of grave violations of human rights and civil liberties as well as the invasion and capture of secret information about the activities of companies and above all, disrespect for the national sovereignty of my country,” she told the assembly.