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Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

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Re: Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the article? That's not what they're doing. They're replacing the contents with a link that eventually stops working. Nothing is being changed in the recipient's e-mail interface.

Did you read the OP's post? They're replacing the contents with a link that eventually stops working for you . Nothing is being changed in Google's backend, so the original message can be preserved for as long as they desire.

The e-mail does not get hidden. The recipient can still see the e-mail after the expiration time. The backend has been changed, as this link feature would require a new backend.

The headline "Google is allowing you to hide emails from its public interface after a specific amount of time" implies that this is just a change to an existing interface and would only work for recipients who use gmail.

Re: Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waaaay too late on that. Just try setting up your own server and sending to a Gmail address.

Absolutely no problem if you set up your server correctly.

Half truth, the age of the domain matters.

Re: Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When your garbage goes out on the curb it's perfectly legal for anyone - including law enforcement - to sort thought it. I have to wonder if the same concept would / could be applied to such emails? The email might be gone from my account and yours, but it's still in a digital landfill somewhere. Free to be reviewed, sans warrants, etc. Perhaps?

Bullshit. The "garbage on the curb" situation is due to the fact a court ruled that once you dispose of garbage "in a public place", there is no reasonable expectation of privacy . Destroying email is exactly the opposite - there is an extremely strong expectation of privacy.

Easy big fella / fellette. Notice the use of the phrase "I have to wonder..." The point being:

- Might it be possible? - Could it be argued? - Are the courts and laws up to speed on such things?

For example, how would this play in a FISA court? Special case? Yes; not plain vanilla law.

Re: Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is absolutely not the way to get people to use it. Very few people can be bothered to muck about with PGP manually. The few geeks who want it or need it are already doing that. What we need is a way to make E2E encryption easy and straightforward, like Signal or Wire, where it's easy, automatic and default enabled.

Did I say that was the way to get people to use it? No. I said it's the way to make it work . I want it to work when people need it, not to get more people to encrypt their shopping lists.

The more people encrypt their everyday communication, the easier it is for your confidential emails to hide in the noise.

Re: Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

#235
post #223
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To some extend, the fact that gmail accepted a message indicates the email passed DKIM inspection.

Only if it had strict DMARC policy (reject) at the time of sending. But it's not possible to reliably check old values from the past. No policy or quarantine policy makes the email go to spam, that's all.

Gmail stores the DKIM check result in the header of the email.

For a more exhaustive system, one might store a DNSSEC result proving the key was valid. Though from my limited search, it seems DNSSEC does not sign a time-stamp.

Re: Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

#236
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, so Gmail is finally moving away from email. Guess it was a question of time.

If anything it sounds closer in outline to djb's proposed Internet Mail 2000 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Mail_2000 ) in which initial storage is the responsibility of the sender, not the recipient, thereby making spam much more expensive. This implementation, however - especially centralized tracking & policy enforcement, and HTTP as the delivery substrate instead of some properly designed protocol - typ…

> djb's proposed Internet Mail 2000 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Mail_2000) in which initial storage is the responsibility of the sender

Seems even better for spammers and advertisers of the world since they wouldn't even have to send mail nor store it, they could just write mail server software to trivially generate it on demand, and they would instantly know who's opening their mail.

Re: Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

#237
post #155

Gmail intentionally deviates from the IMAP spec, forcing email clients to either become Gmail clients or work poorly with Gmail. They refuse to support IMAP push, instead saving push for the Gmail API. Recently they introduced AMP for Email, which happens to work via emails that only Gmail can read. Now they introduce another feature which happens to work via emails that only Gmail can read. I think it's pretty clear…

Gmail is a for profit unit of Google. They'll do what they best think they can monetise.

Given the surfeit of standards compliant email available, switching to another provider is trivial

Re: Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

#238
post #235
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if it had strict DMARC policy (reject) at the time of sending. But it's not possible to reliably check old values from the past. No policy or quarantine policy makes the email go to spam, that's all.

Gmail stores the DKIM check result in the header of the email. For a more exhaustive system, one might store a DNSSEC result proving the key was valid. Though from my limited search, it seems DNSSEC does not sign a time-stamp.

> Gmail stores the DKIM check result in the header of the email.

That's an interesting idea. Unfortunately it makes Google a trusted third party. And a printout of that email would be easy to fake.

It would be nice if the report was signed by Google and timestamped (e.g. RFC 3161).

Re: Google is testing expiring emails in the new Gmail

#239
post #212
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you solve them in the client, that GMail hasn't been able to?

> Hard to separate pending tasks from just conversations. Emails aren't tasks. In any case, Outlook allows for assigning tasks to emails and organize them. > Hard to split conversations into separate threads when two topics diverge. An UI/UX design issue. If the subject is no longer the same, one could provide an UI feature that allows them to be viewed separately. > Leaving a conversation isn't just your decision: y…

> Emails aren't tasks.

Your use of email must be vastly different from mine then. Corporate email is pretty much a way for other people to add stuff to one's TO-DO list.

> If the subject is no longer the same, one could provide an UI feature that allows them to be viewed separately.

Many times an email conversation forks into two topics, each of which is only relevant to some of the people in the recipient's list.

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