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Hopium wrote

I agree. Email's great.

4

celebratedrecluse wrote

I really disagree, and this article is flawed.

  1. The fact that the records are indetfinitely retained, is an obvious and huge problem for someone who is concerned with privacy or personal data security. While GPG encryption thru enigmail etc can be done, it is clunky for unadvanced users and the metadata is impossible to secure regardless. Other messenger solutions have done much better on this front.

  2. Email is NOT operating "open", in my understanding of the meaning of the phrase, at all. The servers which provide email service are almost never free software but rather proprietary. Just because the base protcols are free, doesn't mean the servers aren't running extra logging software on top of their compatibility with the open protocols. Messengers which are truly free, avoid this whole problem through vertical integration. It's a much better basis to trust others not to interfere with the communication, obviously.

  3. There are many FOSS messaging applications which do not have for-profit corporate owners or developers. This is just a ridiculous assertion.

  4. As far as letter writing, simply disable sending with the enter key and use your laptop to communicate. You don't need to use shitty outdated tech to write a long-form response, you just need to be competent at using your computer.

  5. Email accounts are tied to servers, rather than being able to be created independently of a server. Some messenger protocols have this problem too, but not all. XMPP for example, if i am not mistaken, allows for creation of a profile without a server being able to censor you, you can always just switch to another server. You can also talk and video with others as well, email doesn't let you do that at all.

What I will say is that it's easier to setup a burner email account, than certain messengers, because for example Signal requires a PSTN #. That's really the only benefit, and for example XMPP does not have this problem.

There's no reason to email anymore, My god lmao. Arguing this makes one seem fully boomerfied

3

edmund_the_destroyer wrote

In my network of friends and family only one other person hosts their own email server.

I think the barrier to entry to get the average person to use Matrix or something is a lot lower than getting them to use an email service outside Google/Apple/Microsoft/Yahoo/ISP.

All the privacy benefits of email vanish if everyone you communicate with is on GMail.

2

86944 wrote

Self hosting an email server is possible, but otherwise I agree.

2

celebratedrecluse wrote

You are right, it is possible. I doubt that most end users are capable or interest though, so in practice it is not really possible to apply this technicality.

3

another_i wrote

Even if you self host, the routing meta data (email headers) are not encrypted or secured in any way.

Wouldn't a Matrix.org service be more reliable for secured communication?

1

emma wrote (edited )

Let's not. Maintaining control of your own inbox, let alone all the infrastructure needed to send and receive email, is a nightmare.

3

anarcho_statism wrote

I barely check my email. I basically only use it for creating accounts.

2