5 ms·

I think the cynic in me says "so what" mostly because dkim as an ancient technology is hardly secure. I don't think we're any less prone to email fakery and spa

by asim 2y ago

I think the cynic in me says "so what" mostly because dkim as an ancient technology is hardly secure. I don't think we're any less prone to email fakery and spam. I'd be interested to see a possible new solution or a revamping of email as a protocol but that's unlikely. We're more likely to keep it like snail mail as we prioritise different forms of communication. Unfortunately nothing has beat the universal email address on the internet. Here's hoping we come up with a chat standard that sticks and people run a user@server.com chat server where you can communicate from anywhere. Sorry xmpp, you don't count.

alt227 2y ago
You hit the nail on the head with the word 'Universal'. Because email addresses have existed since the begining of the web, anyone who has ever been on the internet has one and uses it for identification purposes. This will not change without another universal standard which everybody automatically has. Its like IPv4, we all have the ability to use IPv6 but do we? Hell no we just use NAT as its an easier quick fix. Changing any addressing on the internet is tough because you always have to have backwards compatibilty, which kind of ruins the point of moving forward.
- lazide 2y ago
  Haha, definitely not true outside of the US and Western Europe. Most of Asia (and probably Africa) uses phone #.
  - alt227 2y ago
    Thats because those are mostly developing countries which were late to the internet party, and are accessed mainly through mobile. Phone # could well be a replacement for email globally in the future, once all the younger generation grow up and rule the world.
    - lazide 2y ago
      Users in those countries already vastly outnumber users in other countries. And are growing much, much faster too.
      - alt227 2y ago
        Yep, but it will never replace email address as universal identifier until it is adopted by all. In addition to that, reports show that the majority of Asian and African users access the internet via a shared device. Therefore phone number cannot be a universal identifier there as it generally identifies a group of people rather than in indivdual. This is why google and outlook accounts with SSO are still generally the most used identifying systems in the world.
        lazide 2y ago
        By what metric? In India, it is exceptionally rare for any services (gov’t and commercial) to use email address. They use mobile. One of many examples [https://web.umang.gov.in/landing/department/aadhaar.html https://web.umang.gov.in/landing/department/aadhaar.html] That accounts for 1.3+ billion distinct accounts in 2023 right there. [https://uidai.gov.in/en/about-uidai/unique-identification-authority-of-india.html https://uidai.gov.in/en/about-uidai/unique-identification-au...] Do you think those folks in Asia and Africa sharing mobile devices have email accounts they can use instead?
        alt227 2y ago
        Not really sure what you are saying here, it seems like you are a bit confused. You were talking about phone numbers being used to access online services, and now you are posting links about the Indian governments Personal Identification number which is more akin to a National Insurance number in the UK or social security number in the US > Do you think those folks in Asia and Africa sharing mobile devices have email accounts they can use instead? Yes definitely. Huge numbers of people in these developing nmations share a single mobile device per family or household, yet they all have individual facebook and google accounts to communicate with the world. That is defintiely all controlled via email address, unless I have missed a feature of FAANG companies where you can sign up for accounts with a mobile phone number?
MattJ100 2y ago
Of course XMPP doesn't count... even though it's a standard, allows people to run their own server, have an email-like address of user@server, allows you to communicate from anywhere, and is how I, my family, and many many others chat online? :)
wolrah 2y ago
Email-style user@host.domain addressing is also used in SIP. At one point in time you could reach me on email, XMPP, and SIP all using the same identifier. We dropped XMPP about a decade ago when all the major service providers stopped federating with it, but if you know my work email address you can also call my desk phone using the same identifier.

by asim 2y ago

alt227 2y ago

You hit the nail on the head with the word 'Universal'. Because email addresses have existed since the begining of the web, anyone who has ever been on the internet has one and uses it for identification purposes. This will not change without another universal standard which everybody automatically has. Its like IPv4, we all have the ability to use IPv6 but do we? Hell no we just use NAT as its an easier quick fix. Changing any addressing on the internet is tough because you always have to have backwards compatibilty, which kind of ruins the point of moving forward.

lazide 2y ago
Haha, definitely not true outside of the US and Western Europe. Most of Asia (and probably Africa) uses phone #.
- alt227 2y ago
  Thats because those are mostly developing countries which were late to the internet party, and are accessed mainly through mobile. Phone # could well be a replacement for email globally in the future, once all the younger generation grow up and rule the world.
  - lazide 2y ago
    Users in those countries already vastly outnumber users in other countries. And are growing much, much faster too.
    - alt227 2y ago
      Yep, but it will never replace email address as universal identifier until it is adopted by all. In addition to that, reports show that the majority of Asian and African users access the internet via a shared device. Therefore phone number cannot be a universal identifier there as it generally identifies a group of people rather than in indivdual. This is why google and outlook accounts with SSO are still generally the most used identifying systems in the world.
      - lazide 2y ago
        By what metric? In India, it is exceptionally rare for any services (gov’t and commercial) to use email address. They use mobile. One of many examples [https://web.umang.gov.in/landing/department/aadhaar.html https://web.umang.gov.in/landing/department/aadhaar.html] That accounts for 1.3+ billion distinct accounts in 2023 right there. [https://uidai.gov.in/en/about-uidai/unique-identification-authority-of-india.html https://uidai.gov.in/en/about-uidai/unique-identification-au...] Do you think those folks in Asia and Africa sharing mobile devices have email accounts they can use instead?
        alt227 2y ago
        Not really sure what you are saying here, it seems like you are a bit confused. You were talking about phone numbers being used to access online services, and now you are posting links about the Indian governments Personal Identification number which is more akin to a National Insurance number in the UK or social security number in the US > Do you think those folks in Asia and Africa sharing mobile devices have email accounts they can use instead? Yes definitely. Huge numbers of people in these developing nmations share a single mobile device per family or household, yet they all have individual facebook and google accounts to communicate with the world. That is defintiely all controlled via email address, unless I have missed a feature of FAANG companies where you can sign up for accounts with a mobile phone number?

MattJ100 2y ago

Of course XMPP doesn't count... even though it's a standard, allows people to run their own server, have an email-like address of user@server, allows you to communicate from anywhere, and is how I, my family, and many many others chat online? :)

wolrah 2y ago

Email-style user@host.domain addressing is also used in SIP. At one point in time you could reach me on email, XMPP, and SIP all using the same identifier. We dropped XMPP about a decade ago when all the major service providers stopped federating with it, but if you know my work email address you can also call my desk phone using the same identifier.