[Cryptography] Email encryption for the wider public

[Jonathan Thornburg]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 03:43:29PM +0200, Henry Augustus Chamberlain wrote:
> I propose that we use the local part of the email address to store the
> public key, so instead of HenryAugustusChamberlain at gmail.com, my email
> address would be (64 random letters)@gmail.com.

I replied:
| This breaks an E-mail use case that I often use fairly frequently:
| I need to read someone my E-mail address over the phone.  (For example,
| I've just completed some transaction by telephone, and I'd like the
| business to E-mail me a receipt/confirmation/whatever.)  Getting the
| spelling of $spouse's (8-letter, but "odd" to many people) E-mail correct
| over a poor-quality phone connection is hard enough already!

On Fri, Sep 19, 2014 at 02:11:26PM +1000, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> Which is why we have the Phonetic Alphabet.  Many's the time I've had to 
> say Hotel Oscar Romeo Sierra Foxtrot Alfa Lima Lima.  The odd part is, 
> they get it every time.

Alas, my experience has not been so good:
* If I just say "Hotel Oscar Romeo Sierra Foxtrot ..." a significant
  fraction of listeners have no idea of what I'm talking about.
* Even I say "H as in Hotel, O as in Oscar, R as in Romeo, ...", the
  error rate is still substantial, particularly if the E-mail address
  I'm trying to spell out has repeated letters.

ciao,

-- 
-- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]" <jthorn at astro.indiana-zebra.edu>
   Dept of Astronomy & IUCSS, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
   "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched
    at any given moment.  How often, or on what system, the Thought Police
    plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.  It was even conceivable
    that they watched everybody all the time."  -- George Orwell, "1984"