

Crypto experts blast German e-mail providers’ “secure data storage” claim - markshepard
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/08/crypto-experts-blast-german-e-mail-providers-secure-data-storage-claim/

======
terhechte
Web.de & GMX are truly some of the worst mail providers I have ever had to
deal with. Web.de, I think, just recently upped the ante on provided mail
storage to 1gb (up from very very little, I think it was 10mb or so, I don't
remember, but my girlfriend used it like 2-3 years ago and I was shocked upon
hearing that).

Their UI is awful. Gmail came out in 2005 (or so) and it took them 7 years to
move to a more modern ajaxy interface that didn't like like coming from the
90s. And yet, they still have tons of awful advertising everywhere, in a way
where Gmail feels like a blessing.

If you seriously want to move users onto the German soil, dear Telekom or
German Government, please take some of the money that is being burned everyday
on ideas like the above, and try to find a serious startup motivated to create
a real Gmail competitor. Something that doesn't try to be what Gmail used to
be 5 years ago, but something that tries to be what Gmail will be in 5 years.
I hear Berlin is packed with people willing to startup every idea that can't
run away fast enough or has been done in the US one year ago.

Now, I don't want to sound cynic, and I think it's great that there's some
initiative for secure email and some understanding for privacy even at a level
as high as telekom, but I'd be even better if they'd done something broader
instead of teaming up with Germanies worst mail providers.

------
coldcode
Maybe what we need is a new email standard that is incompatible with the old
one deliberately. One designed by people who understand all the issues. Sure
it's a pain in the butt to change everything and require all new apps but it
seems like email has reached the end of its lifetime.

~~~
LoganCale
There are several different secure asynchronous messaging protocols in
existence or being worked on. The ones I'm aware of:

\- Bitmessage ([https://bitmessage.org](https://bitmessage.org))

\- Retroshare
([http://retroshare.sourceforge.net](http://retroshare.sourceforge.net))

\- Pond ([https://pond.imperialviolet.org](https://pond.imperialviolet.org))

~~~
junto
The problem with all of these is that it needs a buy in from the biggest
providers like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. With a wide consortium, working
towards an open standard that didn't have any insecure backwards
compatibility, was just as easy to use, was decentralised, and was open source
for all to see, this could work.

The beauty of such a move is that there would be a huge economic benefit, as
companies across the globe would start building server and client software to
sell to as massive growing market.

