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How much do you actually need to know about someone to serve up email to them?
by tambienben 9y ago
How much do you actually need to know about someone to serve up email to them?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- osteele 9y agoFor a consumer mail service, you to need to know enough to let them recover their account, possibly with decades of un-backed-up correspondence with and photos of since-deceased friends and relatives, when they’ve forgotten their password, and without letting someone else recover their account. This is a hard problem. (I’m expecting some idealized “solutions” from people with idealized beliefs about mass market tech skills.)
- Karunamon 9y agoYou also need a process for resolving ownership disputes. Facebook takes the tactic of having the person claiming ownership upload government-issued ID, which seems like it would be the only foolproof way to do so, yet they're constantly maligned for it.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- nameless912 9y agoWhy don't we just <incredibly naive solution that does nothing to help, but somehow also involves the blockchain>?
- tambienben 9y agoMost sites solve this problem with a combination of 2fA and at least one security question. Having my phone number isn't even good 2fA.
- abraae 9y agoThis is such a nasty area, with such crappy solutions (name of your first pet), that it should become a service all of its own. i.e. when I sign up with you, I can choose my own preferred vendor to handle identity recovery.
- closeparen 9y agoYou almost certainly need a password hash, and that’s (as I understand it) the main privacy worry related to the Yahoo breach.