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SMTP has headers that are visible to the email provider while the email is in transit. The absence of logs, etc., goes far to mitigate this threat. As an adde
by efitz 9y ago
SMTP has headers that are visible to the email provider while the email is in transit. The absence of logs, etc., goes far to mitigate this threat. As an added benefit, there is a lot of anti-spam functionality that can be used with only this metadata available, and only ephemerally. I don't think it's true that zero-knowledge at rest means inability to provide common email provider value adds like anti-spam.
- KGIII 9y agoTo add to the above post, the headers have to be unencrypted, else they'd have no method to actually send the email. If it were encrypted, they'd have no idea what the address was, or who to bounce it to if the address doesn't exist. Email headers contain a lot of information. It has the various email addresses, servers involved, ip addresses, time stamps, subject, priority, and things like that. The body of the email is the only part that gets encrypted when encryption is in use.
- rowyourboat 9y agoYou are conflating the SMTP envelope and the mail headers. The SMTP envelope is necessary for delivery, the mail headers are not (the addressee information is duplicated)
- KGIII 9y agoThanks for the correction. I had originally typed 'meta data' but thought headers were the same thing. Thanks!