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Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

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Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#101

Post by actionfromafar »

dusted wrote: post #79
somat wrote: post #25

It is a bit overkill, but the closest you can get to owning your online identity is to "own" your own domain. sarcastiquotes used because you don't really own a domain you only rent it. I run my own mail server because I am a sys-admin and running a mail-server is something I do for fun. but the amount of agency you gain once you have a domain is staggering. people without a domain are pretty much second class net ci…

I run my own mail server as well, on my own domain, own server, physically present in my home. It's increasingly becoming a hassle.. Especially sending mail from a "consumer" line is tricky, they block outgoing port 25 and no longer really provide a relay host for you to go through either.. I basically had to infiltrate my current ISP to get access to people in netops and gaslight them into configuring reverse-dns an…

What can work really well, is to rent the cheapest, smallest VPS you can find.

Then redirect the SMTP port with a VPN to your local server, which can be anywhere in the world. You can run IMAP the same way if you want to.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#102

Post by cfn »

daenz wrote: post #7

State-funded email with E2EE. Every citizen gets an email address. You don't have to use it (and it will probably suck compared to competitors), but you'll have it as a permanent fallback address. And presumably it will come with some legal protections and due process.

Wer have something similar for companies in Portugal. The state pays the former state-owned mail service to host a "inbox" of sorts (not a full fledged email) that every company has to have. I am not sure if it covers individuals, though. It is mostly used to notify the companies of tax dates and such.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#103

Post by fuzzy2 »

colordrops wrote: post #95
somat wrote: post #25

It is a bit overkill, but the closest you can get to owning your online identity is to "own" your own domain. sarcastiquotes used because you don't really own a domain you only rent it. I run my own mail server because I am a sys-admin and running a mail-server is something I do for fun. but the amount of agency you gain once you have a domain is staggering. people without a domain are pretty much second class net ci…

what is the safest registrar? If for instance you own a domain with a TLD managed by a shady jurisdiction, it may not be so secure, right? What's the safest TLD? Other than .com

If you’re living in a country with reasonably low levels of corruption and a somewhat functional judiciary, why not use your country’s TLD? It also helps when verbally relaying your mail address.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#104

Post by Timshel »

somat wrote: post #25

It is a bit overkill, but the closest you can get to owning your online identity is to "own" your own domain. sarcastiquotes used because you don't really own a domain you only rent it. I run my own mail server because I am a sys-admin and running a mail-server is something I do for fun. but the amount of agency you gain once you have a domain is staggering. people without a domain are pretty much second class net ci…

While less private if you have a domain instead of hosting youself you can delegate the handling to a mail provider.

This way you retain the ability to seamlessly change mail provider. And you gain other benefits like infinit number of alias while requiring a low level of technical knowledge and maintenance.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#105

Post by formerly_proven »

fuzzy2 wrote: post #103
colordrops wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what is the safest registrar? If for instance you own a domain with a TLD managed by a shady jurisdiction, it may not be so secure, right? What's the safest TLD? Other than .com

If you’re living in a country with reasonably low levels of corruption and a somewhat functional judiciary, why not use your country’s TLD? It also helps when verbally relaying your mail address.

Also, you're familiar with whatever laws govern that TLD already, and your local registrars will be by most familiar with them when any issues come up and likely have the quickest turnaround for solving issues. I'd probably avoid using one of the huge registrars (because big companies invariably have poor and slow support that's unable to account for exceptional cases), and of course avoid resellers.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#106

Post by lilsoso »

exabrial wrote: post #31

These days it’s your cell provider with ‘texting as 2fa’

Could you explain how the tracking via the cell provider works with 2fa? Do you mean they have an idea of the services you use based on the phone number of the sender and perhaps the format of the message? Or do you mean they actually tie the 2fa code to your identity through agreements with third party services?

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#107

Post by NavinF »

dusted wrote: post #79
somat wrote: post #25

It is a bit overkill, but the closest you can get to owning your online identity is to "own" your own domain. sarcastiquotes used because you don't really own a domain you only rent it. I run my own mail server because I am a sys-admin and running a mail-server is something I do for fun. but the amount of agency you gain once you have a domain is staggering. people without a domain are pretty much second class net ci…

I run my own mail server as well, on my own domain, own server, physically present in my home. It's increasingly becoming a hassle.. Especially sending mail from a "consumer" line is tricky, they block outgoing port 25 and no longer really provide a relay host for you to go through either.. I basically had to infiltrate my current ISP to get access to people in netops and gaslight them into configuring reverse-dns an…

> Nation states absolutely should provide and host, e-mail accounts for their citizens

Because nation states are well known for producing usable software at a reasonable cost to tax payers? IRL this would cost billions and everyone under 60 would forward their gov’t mail to gmail.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#108

Post by ulrikrasmussen »

hamstergene wrote: post #46
ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #9

Another solution that the article doesn't mention: separate the email address from the email provider. It really is the domain name that is your legal identity. Make it as easy for people to register a personal domain name as it is for them to sign up for free email so they can switch from Gmail to Hotmail to Protonmail without changing their email address. Edit: We then need a standard for discoverable DNS settings…

But what credentials do you use to log into the personal domain name provider, to manage it? Another email? Unless there is state-guaranteed ownership of a domain name, this will remain to be chicken-and-egg problem: to manage a domain one needs an account with an email, and to have an independent email one needs a domain. Even then, moving between countries is normal now which poses a huge challenge to the concept o…

A physical address to receive recovery codes? In Denmark, every person has a digital identity and they can authenticate themselves using either a smartphone or a dedicated TOTP key fob, and that could also work. Heck, we even have digital mail boxes for every person.

The reason that email is popular as an online identity is that it is an easy and cheap method for the service provider and user to establish an identity. It would be acceptable for a domain name provider to use a more expensive way of establishing identity since you only have to go through this process for this single provider. A physical office could work if you don't live in a country where people have government-issued digital identities.

Edit: Actually, why would we need all that? We don't need anything but a username, password and maybe a phone number to sign up for GMail, so why should it be different for a domain name provider? Sure, you need some recovery mechanism if you lose your credentials, but that problem is already solved by current email providers by using phone numbers, recovery codes, TOTP, Yubikeys, etc.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#109

Post by juniperplant »

Somewhat tangential, but I wonder where do people using their own domain draw the line.

I personally use a "stable" firstname@lastname.com for supposedly trusted, long-term services (e.g. bank, utilities, etc.) and for services that require my identity for obvious reasons (e.g. shipping/billing address).

For sites where I prefer not to reveal my identity (not even to the site operator), I use Fastmail’s Masked Email (akin to iCloud Hide My Email). This, however, means I don't own those addresses, and if I need to change email provider for whatever reason, it's a PITA to update the email address field on possibly hundreds of sites (assuming you can).

I could buy a domain like randomstring.com to use with catch-all, but then I would be more likely to be tracked across sites, especially in the case of data leaks (which do happen eventually).

Then there are those awkward in-person situations when somebody asks my email and I have to say firstname@lastname.com.

What's a good tradeoff?

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#110

Post by klabb3 »

somat wrote: post #25

It is a bit overkill, but the closest you can get to owning your online identity is to "own" your own domain. sarcastiquotes used because you don't really own a domain you only rent it. I run my own mail server because I am a sys-admin and running a mail-server is something I do for fun. but the amount of agency you gain once you have a domain is staggering. people without a domain are pretty much second class net ci…

> "what if you had a mailing address that didn't change when you moved?"

1972

> you move to St Louis you would get name.stlouis.mo.us

2022

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