Five volunteers needed (EU .... Are you sure that this is really advantageous?

[Stefan Claas]

Mark Fernandes wrote:

Hello Mark,
 
[...]

> Hello Stefan. Forgive my ignorance, but I'm failing to see the significant
> benefit of such a method. Is what you are proposing similar to sending an
> encrypted message on CD via the post, that the recipient then gets
> decrypted using the public key published on the internet?

Yes, it is the same procedure, except that I used postcards.
 
> I don't consider postal systems, even those in the EU, to be generally
> secure or at least verifiable as being secure. Actually worked for a
> Christmas stint at Royal Mail, helping out with the extra mail--didn't
> convince me that mail was much secured. Postmen can be blackmailed, bribed,
> or succumb to other methods of attack. What's stopping someone working in
> the postal system from simply corruptly sending data to outside the EU?

I strongly doubt that *hard working* postmen will do this, because sooner or
later this will be detected and investigated and it would cost postmen IMHO
valuable time (which they probably don't have) to copy and send my mail to
3rd parties outside the EU. IIRC, postal services scan mail for the addresses,
for automatic sorting machines, but I have never read that they also scan
letter content within a letter or from postcards, which would violate
the confidentiality of letters, guaranteed by laws, in Germany and elsewhere.

And if you think, or someone else thinks that *hard working* postmen could
be not trusted, how about all the roots working at email providers? I am
more concerned nowadays (remember Edward Snowden handling over electronic
documents from his employer to third parties) that people (maybe part-time
or intern etc.) can handle over such data to 3rd parties outside the EU,
much much easier and without been detected.

If all Interent citizens had to / or would run their own postfix server then
this would be a different story IMHO.

Last but not least encrypted postcards were popular among couples many many
decades ago (if you google for encrypted postcards) and I think it is a valid
option, which I trust much much more than encrypted email (and I have email
since 1985).

Regards
Stefan

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