3 ms·

I wonder if governments could somehow vouch for emails addresses being a little like verified twitter accounts, so that we can have a good whitelist of legit em

by jokoon 7y ago

I wonder if governments could somehow vouch for emails addresses being a little like verified twitter accounts, so that we can have a good whitelist of legit email addresses. Right now it seems gmail is benefiting from the chaos because they have the training data that allows them to know if a mail is spam. I just wish that the internet could adopt more security standards and processes. You can't trust only google now.

Faaak 7y ago
No thank you. I don't want to need a government sanctioned e-mail address to send an anonymous (whistleblower) e-mail for example.
- tgragnato 7y ago
  Whistleblowing is the last of my concerns. I live in Italy and PEC is a thing, it’s a government certified email with legal value. Technical rules for the formation, transmission and validation are mandatory: read receipts are automatic. To use the service you must have a PEC box with one of the authorized managers. The publication of the list of authorized operators, the supervision and coordination is entrusted to the “Agency for digital Italy” (AgID). This means that every citizen with a pec is paying to obtain an email from a bunch of friends of friends of the government, in a market with virtually no competition, and that your mail box is heavily surveilled but left unsecured.
- iamnothere 7y ago
  To be fair, email is a very poor medium for whistleblowers in any case. The notion of a regulated "official" communications channel (akin to postal mail) for bills and such isn't a terrible idea, although it would make more sense to build something new for this. Email has too many weaknesses to be a good choice.
adrianN 7y ago
I prefer an Internet where people can do what they want without needing approval. This also invites bad actors, but I think that's a necessary evil. As for spam, Thunderbird's filter works quite well for me.
pjc50 7y ago
Email addresses aren't relevant, because they're not authenticated unless DKIM/SPF etc are in place. It's the IP addresses that matter.

by jokoon 7y ago

Faaak 7y ago

No thank you. I don't want to need a government sanctioned e-mail address to send an anonymous (whistleblower) e-mail for example.

tgragnato 7y ago
Whistleblowing is the last of my concerns. I live in Italy and PEC is a thing, it’s a government certified email with legal value. Technical rules for the formation, transmission and validation are mandatory: read receipts are automatic. To use the service you must have a PEC box with one of the authorized managers. The publication of the list of authorized operators, the supervision and coordination is entrusted to the “Agency for digital Italy” (AgID). This means that every citizen with a pec is paying to obtain an email from a bunch of friends of friends of the government, in a market with virtually no competition, and that your mail box is heavily surveilled but left unsecured.
iamnothere 7y ago
To be fair, email is a very poor medium for whistleblowers in any case. The notion of a regulated "official" communications channel (akin to postal mail) for bills and such isn't a terrible idea, although it would make more sense to build something new for this. Email has too many weaknesses to be a good choice.

adrianN 7y ago

I prefer an Internet where people can do what they want without needing approval. This also invites bad actors, but I think that's a necessary evil. As for spam, Thunderbird's filter works quite well for me.

pjc50 7y ago

Email addresses aren't relevant, because they're not authenticated unless DKIM/SPF etc are in place. It's the IP addresses that matter.