> This has major "poll test" energy: a transparent attempt to deny people their rights with an intentional bureaucratic hurdle.
Or a way to reach people (and reduce fraud) when your mailbox is destroyed and you are in temporary housing. Same with people who rent. There was a case where the Supreme Court heard that requiring postage and stationary to mail a form to access government services was a poll tax and they rejected it. The courts may view email as the same way.
Protonmail does not use sms verification, but a lot of places block @protonmail.com without telling you. Happened to me with British Airways and stranded me in Europe until I bought another ticket. Never heard from BA, but another service told me it was because they offer a VPN service.
This is the essence of why using a "business mindset" in government is doomed.
A central question of business is market - who am I trying to reach, and who do I exclude? Trying to sell to every one is doomed. Ignoring market segments as unprofitable to reach or server is smart business.
But for government this is completely wrong! They are obliged by law and justice to serve everyone. Or "equal protection" is just words on paper.
This would be fine if the government offered you a free email account they'd maintain, with login provided by login.gov. But that is not on offer, and likely won't be for the next 4 years.
Well, I like the concept but it's not like the government gives me a passport for free to travel through federally ran checkpoints or a drivers license for free to drive on federally funded roads.
I wonder at what point they'll start printing a face on the social security cards. That'd probably fix a lot of problems.
USPS could probably run an email service pretty well. I assume they print the mass-mailers on their own so they could print out your own email as mail.
I've always argued that internet service was the original intent of requiring the USPS as part of the constitution, and that it should in fact offer ISP services. The purpose of the postal clause, per documents at the time, was to establish "a regular system of free and speedy communication" for the "diffusion of Intelligence and useful Information".
To me it's silly or even dishonest to argue that the USPS should be limited to physical mail. There wasn't even electric power distribution at the time, to say the least of internet or radio. The founders had no concept of electric communication. It's exactly what was intended by the postal clause.
Corporations get away with a lot precisely because they're not the government. That’s the trick: shift functions out of the state and into private enterprise, and suddenly the protections that would have applied no longer do. Every "free speech" thread eventually devolves into the same conclusion: the First Amendment only binds the government.
So the threat model isn't uniform. There's no one-size-fits-all. Depending on how you assess risk, you might reasonably conclude that government services pose less danger than private actors, and someone else might see the inverse.
Why wouldn't you. If youve ever used fema for disaster relief the info they require is quite invasive. These are also the same people you send your tax returns to. The same people your bank gives your AML info to.
Youre going to begrudge them an email account they host for ease of communicating with these same people?
Many use free Google, Yahoo, Microsoft email accounts; I would trust them about the same as a government provided service. Microsoft especially has a proven track record of garbage security posture.
Importantly, we need to be mindful of the lowest common denominator citizen who might have nothing but still be entitled to government services. Governments exist to service their constituents. The USPS is required to serve every US address (including mail delivery by mule into the Grand Canyon) [1], it is straightforward to provide ~1GB of email to everyone who needs it.
Maybe not for personal communication, but for e-mails to the government etc., yes.
Here in Sweden we have something like this, but it's not one mailbox, but effectively one mailbox per government service. So there's one for medical stuff, and you get messages from the physicians who have looked into your problems, messages about booked appointments etc., and there's similar things for other government services that require multi-step communication.
I'd 1000x rather be stalked by a pervert in an office somewhere near DC than scrutinized by a local bureaucrat or enforcement official in my jurisdiction.
It's a lot like the difference between making a threat and posing a threat.
Obviously I'd rather none of these agencies have any of the data, but that ship sailed decades ago.
I'm sorry, but if Trump does it almost everyone, the US voting public, a majority of Congress and a clear majority of the Supreme Court, allows it. The agencies may now be interconnected, but not illegally.
I would use it in that I would forward the email off to my own server, the same as the rest of my ancillary email addresses. But the alternative pointed to in the article is freaking Hotmail - right into the open arms of the surveillance industry. And that account will likely be forgotten about once the immediate problem is over, making any continuity or later contact moot. [0]
In the abstract, email is actually a much better communication of last resort. A phone number requires you to maintain that phone number for the voice mailbox, or even be immediately reachable for more complex communication that can't be left in a voicemail. Whereas email just sits there until you can check it from many places, and the cost of maintaining an account is effectively ~zero.
And here we're talking about FEMA staff facilitating disaster victims. They could certainly have electronic devices to facilitate people checking their government mailboxes a lot easier than they could facilitate the same with phones. There could be terminals in post offices as well, for when the immediate disaster relief has gone away but someone still can't/won't have their own Internet access.
[0] fun fact: I tag senders using a wildcard character in the address, for example x-somebusiness@mydomain. When I give this style of email out over the phone, I invariably get responses of "you need a real email address", for which I have to explain my scheme and assure them that that is indeed my real email address (at least as far as they are concerned). To me this indicates that there is still a large contingent of people making up "email addresses" on the spot when asked, with no intention of ever receiving email - ie "Email address? Oh uh, John Smith At Google?"
(and yeah I know I could reduce the friction there by making the unique identifier into a nonce or other non-plaintext, and then keeping a mapping. alas, this hasn't really been a priority)
I've worked several disaster responses, and in my experience, many individuals who need FEMA assistance often face challenges like illiteracy or disabilities that make using email and other essential tasks difficult (impossible without constant and regular help). Its not possible to force everyone to use only one method of communication and the nature of a disaster may render email unusable as well. Disaster response can and should be very strongly prepared to handle the widest variety of situations and outages, especially when pertaining to communication. We are all at a higher risk otherwise.
And I would imagine that with the EO making English the language of the US, that even more people will struggle with government services as we get deeper into the term of 47.
This is also more or less a requirement to own a cellphone, as every free major email now does SMS verification to cut down on spam accounts.
Never mind that having an undamaged internet connected device and functioning internet service after a natural disaster is a big if.
This has major "poll test" energy: a transparent attempt to deny people their rights with an intentional bureaucratic hurdle.
> This has major "poll test" energy: a transparent attempt to deny people their rights with an intentional bureaucratic hurdle.
Or a way to reach people (and reduce fraud) when your mailbox is destroyed and you are in temporary housing. Same with people who rent. There was a case where the Supreme Court heard that requiring postage and stationary to mail a form to access government services was a poll tax and they rejected it. The courts may view email as the same way.
Protonmail does not use sms verification, but a lot of places block @protonmail.com without telling you. Happened to me with British Airways and stranded me in Europe until I bought another ticket. Never heard from BA, but another service told me it was because they offer a VPN service.
Within a significant bunch of friends/acquaintances, I'd be hard pressed to find more than 1 or 2 who know of protonmail.
proton mail does not require phone number
This is the essence of why using a "business mindset" in government is doomed.
A central question of business is market - who am I trying to reach, and who do I exclude? Trying to sell to every one is doomed. Ignoring market segments as unprofitable to reach or server is smart business.
But for government this is completely wrong! They are obliged by law and justice to serve everyone. Or "equal protection" is just words on paper.
This would be fine if the government offered you a free email account they'd maintain, with login provided by login.gov. But that is not on offer, and likely won't be for the next 4 years.
Well, I like the concept but it's not like the government gives me a passport for free to travel through federally ran checkpoints or a drivers license for free to drive on federally funded roads.
I wonder at what point they'll start printing a face on the social security cards. That'd probably fix a lot of problems.
USPS could probably run an email service pretty well. I assume they print the mass-mailers on their own so they could print out your own email as mail.
I've always argued that internet service was the original intent of requiring the USPS as part of the constitution, and that it should in fact offer ISP services. The purpose of the postal clause, per documents at the time, was to establish "a regular system of free and speedy communication" for the "diffusion of Intelligence and useful Information".
To me it's silly or even dishonest to argue that the USPS should be limited to physical mail. There wasn't even electric power distribution at the time, to say the least of internet or radio. The founders had no concept of electric communication. It's exactly what was intended by the postal clause.
And the government guaranteed you an internet connection and device!
Not sure if /s, but if genuine, not opposed.
Would you actually use or trust such an email service?
Corporations get away with a lot precisely because they're not the government. That’s the trick: shift functions out of the state and into private enterprise, and suddenly the protections that would have applied no longer do. Every "free speech" thread eventually devolves into the same conclusion: the First Amendment only binds the government.
So the threat model isn't uniform. There's no one-size-fits-all. Depending on how you assess risk, you might reasonably conclude that government services pose less danger than private actors, and someone else might see the inverse.
Why wouldn't you. If youve ever used fema for disaster relief the info they require is quite invasive. These are also the same people you send your tax returns to. The same people your bank gives your AML info to.
Youre going to begrudge them an email account they host for ease of communicating with these same people?
Many use free Google, Yahoo, Microsoft email accounts; I would trust them about the same as a government provided service. Microsoft especially has a proven track record of garbage security posture.
Importantly, we need to be mindful of the lowest common denominator citizen who might have nothing but still be entitled to government services. Governments exist to service their constituents. The USPS is required to serve every US address (including mail delivery by mule into the Grand Canyon) [1], it is straightforward to provide ~1GB of email to everyone who needs it.
[1] https://about.usps.com/who/profile/
Maybe not for personal communication, but for e-mails to the government etc., yes.
Here in Sweden we have something like this, but it's not one mailbox, but effectively one mailbox per government service. So there's one for medical stuff, and you get messages from the physicians who have looked into your problems, messages about booked appointments etc., and there's similar things for other government services that require multi-step communication.
You give them (illegally interconnected federal agencies) your regular accounts so you can be stalked by a sexual deviant in the NSA?
I'd 1000x rather be stalked by a pervert in an office somewhere near DC than scrutinized by a local bureaucrat or enforcement official in my jurisdiction.
It's a lot like the difference between making a threat and posing a threat.
Obviously I'd rather none of these agencies have any of the data, but that ship sailed decades ago.
I'm sorry, but if Trump does it almost everyone, the US voting public, a majority of Congress and a clear majority of the Supreme Court, allows it. The agencies may now be interconnected, but not illegally.
To the extent that I'd trust any other email provider, yes.
I would use it in that I would forward the email off to my own server, the same as the rest of my ancillary email addresses. But the alternative pointed to in the article is freaking Hotmail - right into the open arms of the surveillance industry. And that account will likely be forgotten about once the immediate problem is over, making any continuity or later contact moot. [0]
In the abstract, email is actually a much better communication of last resort. A phone number requires you to maintain that phone number for the voice mailbox, or even be immediately reachable for more complex communication that can't be left in a voicemail. Whereas email just sits there until you can check it from many places, and the cost of maintaining an account is effectively ~zero.
And here we're talking about FEMA staff facilitating disaster victims. They could certainly have electronic devices to facilitate people checking their government mailboxes a lot easier than they could facilitate the same with phones. There could be terminals in post offices as well, for when the immediate disaster relief has gone away but someone still can't/won't have their own Internet access.
[0] fun fact: I tag senders using a wildcard character in the address, for example x-somebusiness@mydomain. When I give this style of email out over the phone, I invariably get responses of "you need a real email address", for which I have to explain my scheme and assure them that that is indeed my real email address (at least as far as they are concerned). To me this indicates that there is still a large contingent of people making up "email addresses" on the spot when asked, with no intention of ever receiving email - ie "Email address? Oh uh, John Smith At Google?"
(and yeah I know I could reduce the friction there by making the unique identifier into a nonce or other non-plaintext, and then keeping a mapping. alas, this hasn't really been a priority)
I've worked several disaster responses, and in my experience, many individuals who need FEMA assistance often face challenges like illiteracy or disabilities that make using email and other essential tasks difficult (impossible without constant and regular help). Its not possible to force everyone to use only one method of communication and the nature of a disaster may render email unusable as well. Disaster response can and should be very strongly prepared to handle the widest variety of situations and outages, especially when pertaining to communication. We are all at a higher risk otherwise.
And I would imagine that with the EO making English the language of the US, that even more people will struggle with government services as we get deeper into the term of 47.