[Cryptography] Email and IM are ideal candidates for mix networks

[Phillip Hallam-Baker]

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 3:31 PM, Callme Whatiwant <nejucomo at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello, I'm new here, so I apologize if I'm repeating past arguments or
> asking old questions.
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 8:52 PM, Jerry Leichter <leichter at lrw.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Aug 27, 2013, at 9:48 PM, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> >
> >> On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 22:04:22 +0100 "Wendy M. Grossman"
> >> <wendyg at pelicancrossing.net> wrote:
> >>> On 08/27/2013 18:34, ianG wrote:
> >>>> Why do we need the 1980s assumption of being able to send freely
> >>>> to everyone, anyway?
> >>>
> >>> It's clear you're not a journalist or working in any other
> >>> profession where you actually need to be able to communicate
> >>> spontaneously with strangers.
> >>
> >> Of course, as a reporter, you are probably getting email addresses of
> >> people to talk to via referral, and that could be used to get past the
> >> barrier. The problem of people spontaneously contacting a published
> >> address is harder.
> > Actually, it isn't, or shouldn't be.  Email addresses were originally
> things you typed into a terminal.  They had to be short, memorable, and
> easy to type.  "Published" meant "printed on paper", which implied typing
> the thing back in.
> >
> > But none of that matters much any more.
>
> This is (anecdotally) completely untrue.
>
> A great way to experience this personally is to start using a
> "strange" email address, like mine.  You quickly realize how often you
> *say* or *write on paper* your email address.  Because my email
> address is "odd", almost every time I say it, the listener asks me to
> spell it.  I suspect if I could just say "bob at gmail" I wouldn't
> notice how often this occurs.
>

I have enough problems with mine. hallam at gmail.com, someone else registered
hallan at gmail.com.


But more generally, I want to make it easy for people to send me email. If
they already have my address then it does not matter how easy it would be
to add an encryption key, the opportunity to do so has passed.

What I did realize would be useful is some sort of verification code. So
this morning I was arranging a delivery of a screw for the shower. I give
them the email address but they were going to do hallambaker at gmail.cominstead.

So it would be nice if there was a code that someone could read back to
tell you that they got the address right. It does not need to be
particularly long, two maybe three letters. Just enough to provide a
confirmation.


And extending the concept. Let us imagine that I have a separate email
address that I am only going to use for online purchases and that I have
filled out a delivery address form somewhere for it and that agent will
only give out the address to a party that presents an EV certificate to
show that they are accountable and keep a record of everyone who asks.

This does not really raise particular confidentiality concerns to me
because it is simply a form of compression. My delivery addresses appear
many times in my email inbox, I have a new entry every time I buy something
online. If the mails travel through my ISP's server they will get that info
soon enough (unless the sender encrypts). But it would make filling in
online forms a lot easier and less error prone.



-- 
Website: http://hallambaker.com/
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