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"It is long past the days where email was treated as private communication, as if it was a mailed letter going through the post office." Was email ever 'secure
by amirmc 13y ago
"It is long past the days where email was treated as private communication, as if it was a mailed letter going through the post office."
Was email ever 'secure' in the way you're describing? As far as I'm aware, email gets sent in the clear. The analogy to the postal system would be sending postcards (as opposed to sealed letters).
Edit: fwiw I'm thinking about mail servers, online identity and DNSSEC with a view to pulling together a product in this space.
- cdjk 13y agoThere has been a shift in privacy with cloud storage. When everyone was using POP3 to get email with a 2MB quota on the mail server email didn't stick around on the ISP's computers for long - it was generally stored on a device owned by the recipient, and searching that required all the usual fourth amendment protections. The Stored Communications Act [1] makes a distinction between unread mail stored on a server for more than 180 days, and does not require a warrant to access such email. It appears that read email still does require a warrant, however, as it is considered a "Remote Computing Service." I didn't know that until just now, and am not sure how the legal requirements for accessing that differ from a hard drive sitting on my desk at home. A secure email product would be interesting. I'd be interested to know where deniability (i.e. OTR) would fit into your plans. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stored_Communications_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stored_Communications_Act