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This is a "beginners" article, and it's still too damn complicated for most people. I don't think I could send this article to my family, for instance, or even
by AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
This is a "beginners" article, and it's still too damn complicated for most people. I don't think I could send this article to my family, for instance, or even try to explain it to them without their eyes glazing over.
I'm not sure if the solution is to "hide" the confusing bits in the way that Signal/Enigmail/Mailvelope does, or if we need to scrap the whole concept and try again.
- earthboundkid 9y agoWhy would the solution not be hiding the complexity? TLS "hides" the complexity. It works fine, and it's ubiquitous. The "solution" to E2E encrypted email has been known for two decades: there should be a system for publicly announcing public keys and privately sharing private keys between trusted devices. It's not rocket science: see Telegram, Signal, Whatsapp, iMessage, etc. But what those service have that email does not is a commercial incentive to make it all work seamlessly. Email is stuck with a system of half-implemented RFCs and patches for a system designed in the 80s with zero security considerations. I feel like the only way we're ever going to make progress is if regulators require it. Have the EU mandate that email services with more than 10m customers need to have transparent E2E. Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo will figure it out about three months after that law is passed.
- wybiral 9y agoTo me, if a program is letting me focus on the task at hand and is hiding everything else then that program is doing things correctly. Someone who wants to send a secure message doesn't care how the program works as long as they can trust that it holds up its end of the bargain.