[PLUG-TALK] Email appliances (Re: ... OPC gmail)

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Sun Jul 4 00:52:59 UTC 2021


On Thu, Jul 01, 2021 at 05:39:52PM -0700, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> If the book has additional tips for connecting from owned-
> independent email servers to giant-company services like
> gmail, that would also be helpful.

Related to that, more social than technical.

I read in the New York Times about prosecutors data-mining
archives at google, facebook, etc. for messages from 400+ 
indicted January 6 rioters.  My first impulse is "throw
the book (and the databases) at the bastards".

A more reasoned response is:  when the bastards return to
office (this shit never ends), how will they data-mine my
friend's social media presence to attack them ... and me?

There are zero-fee "Other People's Computer" alternatives
to Gmail etc. in nations like Switzerland that protect
privacy.  Gmail is more convenient, but so was not
emigrating from Germany in the 1930s.

I do not like being owned, even if seemingly convenient.
Must be my 3% "escaped slave" genes ... 28% including 
my "escaped Finnish serfdom under the Russians" genes.

At considerable inconvenience, I use my own email server. 

There's no perfect or terrible here, just imperceptible
gradations of risk in the future.  Managing my own email
is annoying, but so is deploying and maintaining smoke
detectors, monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers in
my home. 

My privacy risk and my inconvenience would be lower if I
could purchase an "email in a box" appliance: easy to use,
100% encrypted and private and secure, with frequent
transport layer and spam filtering updates so I can
continue to correspond with users of Gmail and other
"free as in beer" services on equal terms.

Modern solid state hardware can be very cheap, low power,
and store gigabytes for pennies.  This could all fit in a
thumbnail-sized dab of electronics.  I don't need another
business, but as a retired chip designer I could advise
entrepreneurial software geeks about hardware approaches
and trends. 

95% won't care, and will march in the concentration camp
gates whistling happy tunes.  But 5% of 8 billion people
is nearly half a billion customers, if the hardware is
cheap and versatile enough, and the right pitch is made.
Focus first on protecting the prudent and willing.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com



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