3 ms·

The only way I could see this working would be if there was some way for an email client to store its own encrypted data on the server that is not an email/atta

by slaymaker1907 3y ago

The only way I could see this working would be if there was some way for an email client to store its own encrypted data on the server that is not an email/attachment and is tied to a particular email client. With such an API, clients could just do the indexing themselves and then store the index on the server. You'd probably want something like oblivious-RAM so that clients could avoid reading and writing the entire index all at once. Ok, the more I think this out, the more I like the idea of email servers providing ORAM for email clients. The oblivious aspect could actually be optional as well since the server only needs to provide random access and/or a K/V store. Maybe this could be implemented currently using a fake email draft? Blobs are apparently cleaned up transparently when they are no longer referenced so you could just make sure blobs are small and treat them as immutable blocks. The remaining problem would be encryption of the actual emails, but there is already PGP/GPG for that.

Avamander 3y ago
The receiving mail server could encrypt everything for the mailbox owner's S/MIME keypair, that would be really rather seamless with already existing protocols and clients. This "only" leaves the problem of key management to the user, which in my opinion is far out of scope for JMAP as well. Search will also become difficult but it can be done. At least most mail clients could display all your mail if you have the key.
- slaymaker1907 3y ago
  The thing I wanted to cover with my idea is how to avoid rebuilding the index on each client as well as not having to store the entire index on the client. In my opinion, large indexes are probably a requirement for broad adoption by users since accurate search is very important for email (besides user desires, this could even be a legal requirement for discovery requests during a lawsuit).

Avamander 3y ago

The receiving mail server could encrypt everything for the mailbox owner's S/MIME keypair, that would be really rather seamless with already existing protocols and clients. This "only" leaves the problem of key management to the user, which in my opinion is far out of scope for JMAP as well. Search will also become difficult but it can be done. At least most mail clients could display all your mail if you have the key.

slaymaker1907 3y ago
The thing I wanted to cover with my idea is how to avoid rebuilding the index on each client as well as not having to store the entire index on the client. In my opinion, large indexes are probably a requirement for broad adoption by users since accurate search is very important for email (besides user desires, this could even be a legal requirement for discovery requests during a lawsuit).