The Future of Email

Post by prepend » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 2:06 PM UTC

the_bear wrote: post #84

sverhagen wrote: post #2

I find it hard to judge how much, if at all, this will help, but I'm all for email being more secure, to the point that organizations (banks, governments, insurance companies) stop creating walled-email alternatives: please log in to our secure message center, where you can only see our messages poorly formatted, and for a short time, until we permanently delete them . I like that my Inbox is a somewhat-searchable, h…

Those "message centers" aren't just about security, they're also about compliance. For example, insurance companies need to be HIPAA-compliant which requires that they can only send health-related info to other HIPAA-compliant systems, which means signing a BAA (a contract) with those other systems. There's no way to do that with email (your insurance company can't sign a contract with every potential email host in t…

Post by nicce » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 2:10 PM UTC

fiskeben wrote: post #68

It's insane that in 2026 signing and encryption of emails still isn't the norm, but as long as the business model of the largest email vendors rely on us not having it, I guess we never will.

Post by prepend » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 2:10 PM UTC

latexr wrote: post #79

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like per recipient emails, but I worried how I would know I authorized that sender to send to lonely chicken. The original site could have been compromised. That's why I bought my email domain and use @hnrobert42.com. It helps to use a password manager. I get a lot of convincing emails to linkedin@hnrobert42.com. As well as zynga, wework, etc.

> That's why I bought my email domain and use @hnrobert42.com. It helps to use a password manager. Whenever there’s this discussion on HN, someone usually points out that can sometimes be a bother, especially when giving out the email in person, because people don’t really understand how email addresses works and ask “how did you get that email” or think you’re impersonating the service, or something similar. I guess…

Post by jermaustin1 » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 2:11 PM UTC

the_bear wrote: post #84

sverhagen wrote: post #2

I find it hard to judge how much, if at all, this will help, but I'm all for email being more secure, to the point that organizations (banks, governments, insurance companies) stop creating walled-email alternatives: please log in to our secure message center, where you can only see our messages poorly formatted, and for a short time, until we permanently delete them . I like that my Inbox is a somewhat-searchable, h…

Those "message centers" aren't just about security, they're also about compliance. For example, insurance companies need to be HIPAA-compliant which requires that they can only send health-related info to other HIPAA-compliant systems, which means signing a BAA (a contract) with those other systems. There's no way to do that with email (your insurance company can't sign a contract with every potential email host in t…

Post by dheera » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

LoganDark wrote: post #59

jasode wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gp isn't talking about spam using "secure message" as bait to open unwanted email. Instead, legitimate companies like banks, healthcare, etc tell users to click on a url link to their "Secure Message Center" to read or submit some critical information. It's often the only way to get the info the users need. E.g. if I open a payment dispute with the bank, the workflow they use is the Secure Message area. I can't j…

> The gp isn't talking about spam using "secure message" as bait to open unwanted email. No, this includes all messages from my doctor/healthcare. It's not mass spam. Theoretically I could want to know what's in the message, but not enough to visit a website I've been logged out of again, perform multi-factor authentication, navigate to the message center and find the message and then back it up manually.