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Petraeus and Broadwell attempted to conceal affair using Gmail drafts

Petraeus and Broadwell attempted to conceal affair using Gmail drafts

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David Petraeus_Wikimedia
David Petraeus_Wikimedia

While many questions remain surrounding former CIA Director David Petraeus' extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, new information shows that the two attempted to conceal their email conversations with a clever Gmail trick. The Associated Press reports that Petraeus created a Gmail account under a fake name for the two to share, and rather than create an easily traced trail of emails, the two communicated by saving messages in the drafts folder. According to the ACLU, this technique is actually less secure than traditional email communications, because messages that have not been sent are in a legal grey area and could be obtained more easily by investigators.

While the drafts trick could have successfully concealed Petraeus and Broadwell's communications — provided Broadwell had not drawn attention by sending threatening emails to Jill Kelley, who had a friend in the FBI — the options for remaining completely anonymous on the internet are dwindling. From Reddit users to the upper echelons of government, online privacy nowadays is largely a myth.