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A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

utcc.utoronto.ca

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Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#11

Post by jiggunjer »

causi wrote: post #2

Email is our only reliable communication method between different organizations. I'm still of the opinion there should be public-option internet services. Everyone deserves an e-mail address that cannot be taken away from them without a court order.

Define internet services, or do you mean email service?

There are many decisions that impact the usability and cost of the service. Some people need high volume sending or large mailbox storage. Do you punish people for sending spam? Do you filter spam, if so, how. Do people need public terminals to access the service? Etc.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#12

Post by vladvasiliu »

ejb999 wrote: post #5
causi wrote: post #2

Email is our only reliable communication method between different organizations. I'm still of the opinion there should be public-option internet services. Everyone deserves an e-mail address that cannot be taken away from them without a court order.

Is there somehow a lack of affordable - and in many cases free - email options that we need a government solution to this?

I think the issue is that since email is more and more required to interact with the Government services, they should also provide a usable alternative. Why have your citizens rely on random foreign services from which they may be cut off because a bot somewhere is having a bad day?

In France at least, many people (mostly the elderly) are having a hard time using computers and such. Some Government agencies have dedicated personnel to help them with filling in the forms and such on dedicated computers. It could probably be easier for them if they also provided email instead of relying on a third party provider. Grandma lost her password? No biggie. If she has her ID, we can reset it for her. Good luck getting any kind of support from Google / Yahoo in such a case.

Of course, I will explicitly say that I would be very much against such a service being compulsory for the people. I just think it should exist.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#13

Post by lmm »

ejb999 wrote: post #5
causi wrote: post #2

Email is our only reliable communication method between different organizations. I'm still of the opinion there should be public-option internet services. Everyone deserves an e-mail address that cannot be taken away from them without a court order.

Is there somehow a lack of affordable - and in many cases free - email options that we need a government solution to this?

Price isn't the issue, the issue is that marginalised people can be denied service outright. E.g. if you don't have a phone you can't sign up for many of those services. If you have an unusual name you may be rejected. And if you have unpopular political views you may be kicked off.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#15

Post by zekica »

The biggest blunder for me is that there were usable decentralized communication options before that were popular, but because of trying to monetize user's data FAANG started to tighten their grip on any decentralized solution, and I think they succeeded. They are already trying do to email the same thing they did to XMPP and RSS.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#17

Post by AndrewDavis »

lordnacho wrote: post #8
causi wrote: post #2

Email is our only reliable communication method between different organizations. I'm still of the opinion there should be public-option internet services. Everyone deserves an e-mail address that cannot be taken away from them without a court order.

But we also all need to eat and use a toilet to live. Those seem to be provided by the market to a reasonable degree. Email is also pretty cheap and there's at least some choice among providers, though of course far fewer that food types.

I don't think this is a fair comparison. You can replace a toilet, arguably upgrade to a better one with little to no disadvantage.

Taking away an email address someone has had and is their primary point of contact for years, possibly decades is irreplaceable. Being able to create a new one isn't equal to the old one.

Not sure about elsewhere in the world, but even regular mail isn't that painful in my country. Pay a nominal fee to Australia post and you can have all mail addressed to you forwarded from your old to new address for N months (or years).

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#18

Post by OtomotO »

causi wrote: post #2

Email is our only reliable communication method between different organizations. I'm still of the opinion there should be public-option internet services. Everyone deserves an e-mail address that cannot be taken away from them without a court order.

Would it suffice (tech aside for a moment!) if you could migrate your email adress with you from one provider to the next?

Like for phone numbers (at least here you can migrate the whole number, even with ndc)

The state could give out an emailadress like a social security number and you just use that as an alias and can choose whatever provider you want.

And for these emailadresses the providers would be obliged to take you. (Like for mandatory insurances. We have them where I live)

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#20

Post by SargeDebian »

wombatmobile wrote: post #14

> Email is our only reliable communication method between different organizations. Actually, that’s snail mail.

I think you’ll find it hard to send me a physical mail through my employer. Especially with the office in lockdown it may not be read for weeks.
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