Ask HN: Why don't we have federal email accounts? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why don't we have federal email accounts?

3 pointsdaenz8 comments

So much of our economy operates over email, and in many ways, email has superseded postal mail. Many people don'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?

0. https://www.mailboss.com/mailboxes-federal-property/

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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/

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

Worst. Idea. Ever.

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