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by tigger0jk
2047 days ago
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To be clear, the reason I was presenting that is that the OP says the opposite, essentially "You have to fear being blackmailed, even if you have done nothing wrong". I'm suggesting that non-repudiation is actually a good defense against blackmail for people who have "done nothing wrong". thinkharderdev provides a more concrete example of one of the problems that arises in the police state, in that "wrong"-ness is not consistent, and you could be persecuted for things you say or who you are based on a backwards interpretation of what is "wrong". Personally I am fine with the idea (as represented in this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25115654) that email is providing something similar to a "paper trail", and when you send an email you can expect that people can prove you sent it, should they get their hands on the email. However, I totally understand the position that private secure messaging is important and that email should default to that. In the authoritarian argument, "you've got nothing to hide", is followed by "you are now forced to reveal all", in my execution it would be "you are accountable for all emails you send, forever, should they be released". I am ok with that specific lack of privacy in that context, but I can understand the position that non-repudiability should be opt-in, and privacy the default. |
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> that email is providing something similar to a "paper trail"
because paper doesn’t provide non-repudiation and never has done.
The whole point of a “paper trail” is the “trail” bit, as it provides providence of a sequence of actions or communications that logically fit together. Hopefully providing evidence for your side of a dispute.
There’s no need for email to be non-repudiatable to achieve this. In fact I serious doubt a court would care if an email is DKIM signed. Very rarely are disputes so simple and straightforward that proving a single email was sent is enough to produce an outcome.
In short DKIM non-repudiation by default gives up everyones privacy, to protect a tiny group of individuals engaged in extra edge case disputes, where the entire outcome of the disputes hangs on the validity of a single email.