42 Free and Open Source Projects Receive Funding to Reclaim the Public Nature of the Internet
NLnet; 42 Free and Open Source Projects Receive Funding to Reclaim the Public Nature of the Internet
I still feel that certain must haves on the internet should have a government option. Email is something that is very problematic to change. Its your home on the internet. Its the core of the internet identity. I think everyone should have a right to an email address that is already secured for government communications which don't have to leave the internal government system. They don't have to allow for vast storage as the user can pop email off and hold it locally. It should be setup to work with heavily regulated industries like banking so that communication is considered secure. I always get flak on this but its like dudes you can still have your proton account or google or whatever but this would be an email you have a right to but you don't have to use outside of government communications and you should be able to go to the government office if you have issues with it. In the us I could see usps handling if it it was country wide or secretary of state for the state level.
I sometimes like to imagine a future where your local library provides email addresses to card holders
I was actually thinking libraries would make sense to. Problem is it would be good for something that can stick with you for life no matter where you move. USPS for the us would be the only thing I ccan think of with offices that wide spread.
Yeah. Maybe, in this fantasy world, you can port your address to different branches the same way you might transfer your phone number between carriers. My phone number area code reflects where I lived when I got my first phone. It does not correspond with where I currently live. The same could be true of email addresses in this scenario.
Or maybe the Department of Education could provide to young people an email adress for free. (Snail) mail has never been free afterall (you pay for stamps) so not having a free government service would be new.
Having the government provide email as a public communication service sounds good in theory. However, this could also pose a privacy risk if your government turns rogue and authoritarian. If it is possible to also have this communication E2E encrypted in a way that is as frictionless as possible (no, PGP is not really that frictionless unless it's built in), it would be great. However, we all know what is the general take of governments regarding E2E encryption, so I think I'll pass this one.
Im not suggesting it be the only source of email just a guaranteed source that won't go away and allow for more secure email from the government. people can still go crazy on whatever email provider they want but gmail makes up a huge amount and I mean.... I would expect encryption like that. I know folks will say government won't do that but look at our mail system and how its setup. It can be done. The safest way to safeguard an item from search is to put it in an addressed and stamped envelope.
Well, you can easily tell if an envelope has been tampered with. For email, on the other hand, it's more difficult for the average folk. And again, Gmail is also sharing information with the government (okay, it's mostly the US government, but still).
Imo, we need more providers like Proton, Tuta, Mailbox dot org etc. and probably more education into how one could protect their data and so on.
I still want something thats guaranteed for life and recoverable so your life is not upended if a company goes belly up. its just to important now.
People have invented cryptographic identities. Maybe unbinding email identity from service is long overdue.
I'm biased, but seems much better than what you are suggesting.
I mean that is fine as long as its secure and 100% recoverable by the user. I don't see those two being possible without a central authority.
as long as its secure and 100% recoverable by the user
These two are fundamentally incompatible.
And having a central authority obviously compromises security.
The idea is sound, I think. Treat emails, in a way, like we do phone numbers and house addresses. Except this doesn't ever change, when your name could (or you share a name with thousands of others). I wonder what the identifier would be for the address? Obviously SSN[at]usa.gov is a bad idea 😅
However, could you imagine the nightmare (on both sides) of a tech support call center for official government email account support?
I dislike this idea that government run is bad.
I recently changed my name and had to call several government agencies and found them competent and helpful every time.
I dislike this idea that government run is bad.
Nothing is inherently bad, but putting yourself into a hierarchy (at the bottom of it too) that you don't need seems a dubious decision.
Having postal service support e-mail services is fine, maybe.
you know that is the thing. If we expect the populace to deal with large portions of their lives virtually then they need that support. Support the private industry does not give and quite frankly makes less secure. In addition its part of something that has always been a government task. identity. birth, death, marriage records and basic id.
I agree with you. I just think about how some government entities are less-than-efficient when it comes to the customer service thing, and that would probably apply here as well.
Probably also makes a difference if it's at the state or federal level. Local DMVs in some areas are, well, many jokes exist.
Yeah but the crap cheaper online options would still work its just that in the case of an account being taken over or such there would be a way to recover that is definitive in person. Also personally in the modern era my experience with government entities has been great but that just be my state and city. Also in the past it was not so great but they have greatly improved. Like you can make appointments at my dmv's. Also apples to apples I found they have always beat out private. Its hard as their are so few comparison points but like usps has always been a better experience for me than fedex or ups.
It doesn't have to be email. Denmark has such a system, called e-boks. It's essentially your digital mailbox where you can receive most letters from government agencies and banks (no more paper!). Other institutions and companies can use it too (not sure about who can and can't use, maybe you can send 'letters' from one individual to another too?). I think it's also possible to respond in some cases.
Yeah if it can essentially work like email but given another name that is fine to me. I think it should at least have a box that can accept emails from whoevery for general correspondence if you need it but yeah I sorta want it to be different for the security it should have. I just figured there would be like an internal government network part with encrypted connections for that communication and then like the secondary one for banks and such where the institution that use something like a vpn to that area and again is all encrypted and then like a public box that is citizen beware type of thing. I have mentioned this before and I think someone mentioned the denmark thing sorta. At least it only makes one more thing you need to log into as opposed to like a million different agencies and institution portals. There is one eastern europe country too that I recall was doing a lot of things online and I assume maybe they have something like this.
Do any countries provide email services to their citizens? Of course email is no use unless you have a way to access it, so you would need to add some sort of basic internet connection. And of course you would need something to connect with...
Not necessarily. As long as their is public access to networked computers like at the library. Which is common in the us.