| Ok, I'll bite. This is a good post - I am negative on your ability to pull this off, but it's a worthwhile discussion to have IMO * Totally anonymous (ie no metadata trail) communication seems impossible / impractical. If everywhere is the Tor then we massively increase traffic, (not to mention the trustworthiness of "everyone" is a lot lower per unit than everyone currently running a tor node) Anyway, even if a encrypted anonymous message arrives for me, just working out who it's from without any metadata seems complex web of double decryption I do struggle with how anonymity is going to solve all problems with totalitarian states. In the end we need to solve this in the real world of politics and execution squads so we don't mortally worry about letters or emails being read. * there is a lot more here than my tired brain can handle - but my main concern is a simple human one - if secure anonymous comms is "impossible", then I could see levels of secure encryption (sent from my iPhone, sent from my PC hardwired at home that has a secure USB boot on my key ring). But this idea demands that as the recipient I work hard to determine from context if the message is secure - aha it's 11pm in the UK and Adam just mailed me a secure note saying we should give everyone an Owl. Chances are high he is pissed and his mates sent it. Once technology stops helping us make those decisions it's kind of pointless - May as well just keep sending clear text is not an irrational stance. Be interested in the discussion in the morning - cheers * lastly - what email client do you guys use that allows gpg on mobile?! Edit: clean up |
It's the conversion that matters to me, there needs to be a solution to this, and for that to happen people need to get engaged.
As for anonymity, I don't think there's a good option there - the spec I'm writing isn't anonymous to the recipient, or to the recipient's server. My focus is on encryption and authentication. There's more metadata exposed than I'd like in my model, but it's a balancing act between competing goals. We'll see that in any standard that replaces email - there are many forces at play with different goals and different requirements. No solution will make everyone happy.
There are issues, metadata being a big one, that the proposal I'm working one doesn't address as well as I'd like. I'm hoping others will try to tackle this issue as well, and come up with other methods that may work better.
When we are ready to release a public draft, it'll just be the first step. We don't expect anyone to just say "Hey, that's perfect, let's replace all the email servers" - that isn't going to happen, and it's not our goal. A lot of review will be needed, changes will need to be made to address different concerns, and maybe it'll progress to a useful system. Maybe somebody else will come along with a different idea, and that one will get the community backing. What I want is a replacement system that is secure - I don't care who's design it is. It's not about ego, not about winning for me - it's about prodding the community into action.
As to the last question, as others have answered, K-9 Mail. It works well enough for my needs.