A letter dated January 7 issued by the Secretariat of the Cabinet informed all provincial governors that the Cabinet had made the resolution in December for government officials to stop using private, and especially foreign, email providers to communicate official matters within one year.

Officials who are directors or in higher positions must stop using foreign email providers within three months. The letter stated the resolution was made in order to "protect official information".

Dr Sriprapha Petcha-ramesree of Mahidol Univer-sity's Human Rights Studies Programme said she was afraid the Cabinet resolution would contradict the rights and freedom principals written in the constitution.

Furthermore, email systems provided by the government's offices are not reliable and have limited capacity, she said.

Dr Thaweesak Koananta-kool, former director of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, said the Cabinet resolution only applied to official matters, not private communication.

He said the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission had conducted a study last year and found that four out of every 10 government officials were using Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo in communicating official matters.

Thaweesak said many people who use free email providers may have never read the "privacy policy" of these providers that allows the providers to read their users' emails and attached files.

For example, Gmail's privacy notice states that "Google"s computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including formatting and displaying information to you, delivering advertisements and related links, preventing unsolicited bulk mail (spam), backing up your messages, and other purposes relating to offering you Gmail".

Thaweesak said many government officials had already violated the Office of the Prime Minister's rule on "official secrets" by using these free email providers and the Cabinet's resolution would protect the country from the risk of losing official secrets.

Dr Naruemon Thabchumpon of Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Political Science warned the government should not have confused a technological problem with the freedom of communication.

"The order doesn't make sense. This has nothing to do with national security. If the government is worried about hackers, the ICT has to work to solve the problem," she said.

Naruemon said she had not seen the order but she would continue using foreign email providers in her work as they were more available and effective.