
Ask HN: Why don't we have federal email accounts? - daenz
So much of our economy operates over email, and in many ways, email has superseded postal mail.  Many people don&#x27;t realize that residential mailboxes are federal property[0].  With this in mind, should the government provide every citizen, for a fee, with a virtual mailbox, in the form of a federal email account, in the same way it handles real mailboxes?<p>0. https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mailboss.com&#x2F;mailboxes-federal-property&#x2F;
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vitovito
The pragmatic answer is that, the USPS tried it 2-3 times in its history, but
was continually hobbled by private industry lobbyists, until in 2006 when it
was finally banned from ever trying anything again:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-usps-
email/](https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-usps-email/)

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LinuxBender
I could see the IRS having a secure messaging system specific to the IRS. Each
state should probably also have a secure messaging system. I don't check snail
mail. Such a system should only be used for government official communications
however and must use MFA and have a way for citizens to regain control of
their accounts easily and quickly. I would never use such a system for
unofficial government communications however.

I've interacted with many government offices and very few of them set up their
DNS, SSL certificates and servers properly. It seems like just the other day I
had to explain to the DMV that RFC1918 addresses must not be in their MX
records. They argued with me. And you don't even want to know which agencies
can't install their SSL certificates correctly. Not saying names, they do not
handle embarrassment very well.

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masonic
For the same reason you don't have a federal physical address.

You establish your own domicile, and you receive your mail at no charge to
you.

You establish your own email address, and you receive email at no charge to
you

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daenz
The analogy doesn't hold. The federal government is responsible for the
delivery of physical mail messages, up to the termination point. In email,
there is no such protection through the federal government. Do you understand
why such protection is critical?

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DjGilcrease
Oh god no! I would not trust the government to not read every email for
"security" reasons. I barely trust Google / Microsoft / etc to not read my
email.

~~~
upofadown
They kind of do that now using their fiber taps, don't they? Most people are
happy enough letting entities like Google have access to their email. If it
was _just_ the federal government things might actually be better.

In general if you don't encrypt your email you should expect _someone_ to read
it.

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towndrunk
Oh god no! Who the hell would want to deal with a DMV like organization with
your email.

There are so many free email services why would this even be needed.

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halfbrown
Worst. Idea. Ever.

