On its surface, ScareMail is a web browser extension that creates scary emails to disrupt network security appliances (NSA) surveillance. Created by Ben Grosser from Urbana, Illinois, United States, its technical advances goal is to broaden in Google’s Gmail services and works as a tool to add signatures in order to add narrative aspects through spoken and written account of events to add a collection of network security appliances (NSA) search terms that create interactive experiences. Grossers overall goal is to create a space that allows users to interact through their experiences, machines, systems around the world that have different cultural, social and political backgrounds in order to add diversity to ScareMail.
When entering this particular web browser extension, ScareMail acts as a trap for network security appliances (NSA) comparable to programs such as PRISM and XKeyscore. The webpage then forces the user to a page with claptrap. Essentially, the program ScareMail works as a source to avoid automatic filtering in each email's story.
ScareMail draws from qualities of Benjamin Grosser’s own implications of software through the inspiration of exploring the cultural, social, and political implications in his ultimate goal of creating a space that creates scary mails in order to disrupt network security appliances. Grosser is known as the unrivalled king of ominous gibberish as he created a system that demonstrates disobedience in the digital age. Grosser’s design in ScareMail recognizes how NSA email surveillance programs predetermined keywords. These detections are put into place in order to surveillance communications by presumed terrorists which is why ScareMail is put into place as a web browser extension that creates scary emails to disrupt network security appliances (NSA) surveillance. Codes in the program are collected as an indicator of intent, which then searches digital communications to predict behaviours based on words used in the emails in order to block the user and make NSA search results useless. ScareMail acts as a ploy to distract the user and pops up many search algorithms with overwhelming the user with thousands of results.
Therefore, ScareMail acts as a source to reveal a primary flaw of NSA when they generate surveillance on emails. Words do not equal intent and ScareMail generates many words in order to change the “scary,” mail into something totally different. It creates a unique story every time it runs. NLP, Natural Language Processing is used as a source text to identify nouns and verbs within the original email in order to change the email into scary alternatives. Using NLP creates text for ScareMail extensions and creates a totally different email than it was originally intended in the style of intermediates.The email then is created into an email that does not have intended meaning as an email that alarms NSA. The scary mail keeps its format and style of the original email but replaces it with sounding and looking narratives.
Grosser also reveals a list of nouns and verbs in the new text that allows writers to guess probable NSA search keywords which ultimately allows the author to utilise words that have many meanings in order for it to not be flagged by NSA because of it being a multipurpose word. This allows ScareMail to use its multipurpose innovative use of browser extension to create an aesthetic action in the fear of being surveillanced by the NSA.
All in all, ScareMail is an interesting program that uses emails to send messages between language, intent, self-censorship, freedom of speech, and hacking forms of political action of the surveillance of governing parties. ScareMail allows authors to use emailing with censorship in order to wittingly perform filtered out keywords in order to prevent surveillance organisations. Rather than opting out of using such websites on the internet, ScareMail allows users to continue using software programs while suggesting it is not “words,” that are scary, but the system that is built in which allows the concept of privacy and anonymity of users as they find ways to exploit the system. While it disrupts the NSA surveillance extending Google’s Gmail, it adds personalization through generating different types of words in order to contain probable NSA search terms to not be flagged. It forces surveillance to view nonsense when surveillanced, allowing the author of the email to have more privacy while adding uniqueness to each emails story in an attempt to avoid filtering by NSA search systems. ScareMail acts as a ploy to distract the user and pops up many search algorithms with overwhelming the user with thousands of results.