Encryption on Mailing lists sensless?

[Mark H. Wood]

On Mon, Nov 17, 2014 at 01:49:01PM -0500, Robert J. Hansen wrote:
[snip]
> The crypto dream is that the confidentiality of our messages will be 
> preserved for centuries after our death, which sounds really great up 
> until you consider what an archaeologist circa 4000 AD is going to be 
> thinking.  "I have a stack of records here that could shed light on the 
> way people lived in a long-dead civilization, but I can't read them. 
> Why?  What were these people doing that they thought their email to 
> their Aunt Edna needed to remain secret for all time?  Why is it that, 
> millennia after they're gone, Aunt Edna's recipe for potato salad has to 
> be gone with them?"
> 
> Or think about your own kids, circa 2040 AD.  "I'd love to read these 
> emails between Mom and Dad when they were courting, but ... they were 
> afraid of Somebody-with-an-S reading their emails.  I wonder if they 
> ever thought that the Somebody might be their son, who wanted to 
> understand after their deaths how it was these two people came to meet 
> and fall in love."

This raises an interesting point.  If I bequeath my collected letters
to someone, how do I arrange the transmission of the necessary
passphrases as well?  I wonder if the lawyer who draws up my will
would even understand the question.

-- 
Mark H. Wood
Lead Technology Analyst

University Library
Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
755 W. Michigan Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317-274-0749
www.ulib.iupui.edu
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