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In the same boat. Happy paying ProtonMail customer at the moment but doesn't serve much value as none of my contacts are ProtonMail users. I see email as an ins

In the same boat. Happy paying ProtonMail customer at the moment but doesn't serve much value as none of my contacts are ProtonMail users. I see email as an insecure communication medium anyway, so moving to iCloud+ seems like a good idea. Also a Migadu user, but all domains on their micro plan (limit of 5) are used up at the moment.

headmelted 5y ago
I’d be happier to stuff e-mail in the bin wholesale. It’s a terrible technology that should have been put to rest years ago - like phone networks. Any system that requires you to grant all permissions to all contacts, irrevocably in perpetuity, is garbage. Ideally I should be able to generate for you a single GUID when we meet (e.g. by a QR code). I should be able to grant a privilege to you for calling/texting/mailing me. You can call me with it, you can message me, you can mail me - but you never get any other info through that system (nor do I for you). If I ever want to be done with you I delete the GUID and the operator removes the link and declares the GUID out of service. How has Apple and/or Google not already built this? Should stalking victims really be forced to uproot every part of their digital life to get rid of creeps or spammers? It’s ridiculous in 2021 that this isn’t standard.
- IfOnlyYouKnew 5y ago
  Apple has already built that. They offer random forward addresses for email form fields and in a list you can manually pick from for real-life interactions. And I think you may be overdoing the contrariness. E-Mail is one of the few open standards still existing, and with the advances of spam filters, it is really not that bad.
  - headmelted 5y ago
    Hide My Email works as a proxy for e-mails, and I really like it, but moreso for privacy than spam. If you have my e-mail address, then you have a means to contact me - even if I don’t want you to. Sure, I can block you, I can ignore you or I can trust that my spam filter will catch your e-mails, but what if you’re malicious? You can circulate my e-mail to any number of spam lists that I’ll have to receive rubbish from in perpetuity. HME works for that, but I’m still stuck giving the same phone number to everyone. Phone numbers are even worse in that I can’t just ignore a call from you (save for declining all calls from withheld or unknown numbers, at which point my phone could be likewise getting called constantly if you were maliciously circulating my details). The notion that the means by which I contact you is the same as how your friend John or cousin Sarah or even your parent/kids/spouse contacts you is insane. We have two systems where you need to arrange with everyone you know to use new details because one single person that had your details is being nasty. And you’ll have to do it all again if they find out your new ones. It’s not at all how you would design a communication system if you were to start over. Something like Hide My Phone Number would be a big help, but wouldn’t work with the existing phone network as you’d need to make far longer phone numbers than the standards support (essentially a number for Apple/Google then a routing GUID for the contact if you wanted to built it on top of the phone network). I’d like to see Apple and Google make a standard to push to replace phone numbers with something like this that can sit inside the dialer so it’ll handle it transparently as if it were a normal call.
    - ValentineC 5y ago
      > If you have my e-mail address, then you have a means to contact me - even if I don’t want you to. > Sure, I can block you, I can ignore you or I can trust that my spam filter will catch your e-mails, but what if you’re malicious? You can circulate my e-mail to any number of spam lists that I’ll have to receive rubbish from in perpetuity. I use a few catchall domains for this. Sure, people can still circulate the email address I give humans, but I can easily create filters to send website email addresses to spam.

headmelted 5y ago

I’d be happier to stuff e-mail in the bin wholesale. It’s a terrible technology that should have been put to rest years ago - like phone networks. Any system that requires you to grant all permissions to all contacts, irrevocably in perpetuity, is garbage. Ideally I should be able to generate for you a single GUID when we meet (e.g. by a QR code). I should be able to grant a privilege to you for calling/texting/mailing me. You can call me with it, you can message me, you can mail me - but you never get any other info through that system (nor do I for you). If I ever want to be done with you I delete the GUID and the operator removes the link and declares the GUID out of service. How has Apple and/or Google not already built this? Should stalking victims really be forced to uproot every part of their digital life to get rid of creeps or spammers? It’s ridiculous in 2021 that this isn’t standard.

IfOnlyYouKnew 5y ago
Apple has already built that. They offer random forward addresses for email form fields and in a list you can manually pick from for real-life interactions. And I think you may be overdoing the contrariness. E-Mail is one of the few open standards still existing, and with the advances of spam filters, it is really not that bad.
- headmelted 5y ago
  Hide My Email works as a proxy for e-mails, and I really like it, but moreso for privacy than spam. If you have my e-mail address, then you have a means to contact me - even if I don’t want you to. Sure, I can block you, I can ignore you or I can trust that my spam filter will catch your e-mails, but what if you’re malicious? You can circulate my e-mail to any number of spam lists that I’ll have to receive rubbish from in perpetuity. HME works for that, but I’m still stuck giving the same phone number to everyone. Phone numbers are even worse in that I can’t just ignore a call from you (save for declining all calls from withheld or unknown numbers, at which point my phone could be likewise getting called constantly if you were maliciously circulating my details). The notion that the means by which I contact you is the same as how your friend John or cousin Sarah or even your parent/kids/spouse contacts you is insane. We have two systems where you need to arrange with everyone you know to use new details because one single person that had your details is being nasty. And you’ll have to do it all again if they find out your new ones. It’s not at all how you would design a communication system if you were to start over. Something like Hide My Phone Number would be a big help, but wouldn’t work with the existing phone network as you’d need to make far longer phone numbers than the standards support (essentially a number for Apple/Google then a routing GUID for the contact if you wanted to built it on top of the phone network). I’d like to see Apple and Google make a standard to push to replace phone numbers with something like this that can sit inside the dialer so it’ll handle it transparently as if it were a normal call.
  - ValentineC 5y ago
    > If you have my e-mail address, then you have a means to contact me - even if I don’t want you to. > Sure, I can block you, I can ignore you or I can trust that my spam filter will catch your e-mails, but what if you’re malicious? You can circulate my e-mail to any number of spam lists that I’ll have to receive rubbish from in perpetuity. I use a few catchall domains for this. Sure, people can still circulate the email address I give humans, but I can easily create filters to send website email addresses to spam.