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The UK government is announcing plans to monitor internet communication for everyone in the country, and it will be possible for law enforcement to be able to see, who, when and how often and long you communicate with "in real time"

However I was under the assumption that when using a service like Gmail, using HTTPS, no one could see what is being transmitted, and there is no way to tell between sending an email on webmail, and just visiting a normal website?

Is it possible for ISPs and governments to see who you are sending webmail emails to? And will using a client such as Mail.app on Mac with a Gmail account make any difference comapred to just using the gmail website?

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Theoretically, anyone with access to the router, through which your traffic passes, can see your connections & the data being transferred. It's just like phone wire tapping. However, HTTPS and other encrypted traffic can't be read easily. – dnbrv Apr 3 '12 at 12:46
so they can see I'm communicating with mail.google.com, but they can't see im sending an email to joblogs@gmail.com? – Jonathan. Apr 3 '12 at 13:12
Unless they convince Google/Hotmail/Yahoo/etc to give them access to your account. – Alex In Paris Apr 5 '12 at 8:49

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