From 8bb7eb64e18057ef71daf5e8df7a9d7c60af5c83 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lars Wirzenius Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:00:40 +0200 Subject: fix: spelling and wording improvements I now favor American spellings. --- rethinking-email.md | 32 ++++++++++++++++---------------- 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) diff --git a/rethinking-email.md b/rethinking-email.md index a930697..4fb7e1e 100644 --- a/rethinking-email.md +++ b/rethinking-email.md @@ -3,10 +3,10 @@ I am tired of the existing Internet email system, both as a sender of email, as a recipient, and as an operator of an email server. -There's spam, scam, and the email system is getting centralised in all +There's spam, scam, and the email system is getting centralized in all sorts of bad ways. This essay is about sketching what a good email system would look like, if it were re-designed from scratch, using -everything we've learnt over the decades, and not necessarily using any +everything we've learned over the decades, and not necessarily using any part of the existing system. As an anecdote, I am currently not on any active email discussion lists, @@ -49,13 +49,13 @@ valuable and would like a new system to retain them. * Anyone can email anyone. This lowers barriers for communication, globally. It's especially important for free and open source software projects, but also to allow people all over the world to easily - self-organise to build a better world in general. + self-organize to build a better world in general. * Distributed: sender and recipient don't need to use the same server. Anyone can set up their own server, assuming time, know-how, and a little money. -* Standardised: there are many implementations and they're mostly +* Standardized: there are many implementations and they're mostly inter-operable. * Supports off-line use. Not everyone can, or wants to, be online all @@ -65,14 +65,14 @@ valuable and would like a new system to retain them. ## Problems with the existing email system * Spam, or unsolicited bulk messages. Worse, anti-spam measures drive - centralisation, and are still ineffective, especially for those not - using one of the huge centralised providers. End result: you either + centralization, and are still ineffective, especially for those not + using one of the huge centralized providers. End result: you either sacrifice privacy or you get tons of spam. - Spam is a result of the desirable feature that anyone can email anyone, combined with the fact that sending an email costs approximately nothing, even if you send millions of emails, and - aggravated by the fact that spamming has de facto no real financial + aggravated by the fact that spamming has de-facto no real financial or legal repercussions. * Scam, or trying to convince people to do something that they shouldn't @@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ valuable and would like a new system to retain them. great, and the big providers of email software or service tend not to support them, or support them badly. -* Becoming centralised to a few huge providers. This is bad for +* Becoming centralized to a few huge providers. This is bad for privacy and can be catastrophic for security. If one of the big providers gets breached, up to hundreds of millions of people's communications are at risk. @@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ valuable and would like a new system to retain them. not widely used, and tend to also leave metadata (headers) unencrypted. It's difficult to hide who is sending email to whom. -* HTML email is not well standardised, and is a security and privacy +* HTML email is not well standardized, and is a security and privacy risk. Different email clients implement HTML in different ways, and the web standards are not followed very closely. @@ -112,8 +112,8 @@ valuable and would like a new system to retain them. from the Internet, which results in more security problems (images are complicated data provided by a potential attacker, and just viewing them is a security risk) and privacy issues (the image - hoster will be notified when you view the email, see tracking - pixels). + hosting service will be notified when you view the email, see + tracking pixels). There are moves to restrict this, but the problems have been known since HTML email was introduced, and the problems continue to exist. @@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ valuable and would like a new system to retain them. mostly don't use them routinely. * There is no good support for group discussions. Massive dumps of - forwarded discussions are commonplace in most large organisations. + forwarded discussions are commonplace in most large organizations. Mailing list managers exist, but they tend to be clunky, and tend to not be great for having discussions among large groups of people. They're better at sending out announcements and newsletters. @@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ The scam problem can be stated as follows: * All email is digitally signed using the cryptographic keys. * No email is delivered unless it carries a digital stamp issued by the - recipient, or someone authorised to issue one on behalf of the + recipient, or someone authorized to issue one on behalf of the recipient. The idea for stamps comes to me from [@fedispam], who seems to have @@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ however, allows more features: spammer, the spammer can't use the stamp to send me email; further, I will know the shop gave the stamp to the spammer -As an extra twist, digital stamps may also be an authorisation to +As an extra twist, digital stamps may also be an authorization to someone else to issue stamps on your behalf. Rather than the stamp allowing them to send you an email, it lets them create a stamp that lets a third party send you an email. Your email software can put any @@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ and all the constraints it puts on stamps you issue directly on the delegation. For example, if you and Alfred have a mutual friend, Bruce, you can give -Bruce a stamp that authorises Bruce to issue single-use stamps to other +Bruce a stamp that authorizes Bruce to issue single-use stamps to other identities. If Bruce thinks you and Alfred should know each other, Bruce can issue Alfred a stamp that lets Alfred send you a single email. If you like Alfred, you can issue further stamps to Alfred. @@ -391,7 +391,7 @@ title: "Re-thinking electronic mail" author: Lars Wirzenius abstract: | There are many problems with the existing Internet email system, - such as spam, scam, surveillance, insecurity, centralisation, and + such as spam, scam, surveillance, insecurity, centralization, and complexity. The problems are starting to outweigh the benefits of the system. Fixing the problems by evolving the current system seems overwhelmingly difficult. This essay examines -- cgit v1.2.1