Terrible name.
One of the biggest issues with security-conscious systems is that people don't want to be seen as using something that only "people with something to hide" would be using.
The average American watches a show like SVU and learns that TOR is how kiddie porn is traded, not that it is how dissidents in Iran or Russia communicate with Journalists. They hear about the "darknet" and assume that that is where illegal activity goes on.
So "dark mail" gives the complete wrong connotation and basically means this is DOA unless they completely rebrand.
A quick search shows SecureMail and PrivateMail are commercially used, but LockedMail and SignedMail aren't.
I don't think it'd be too late to (eventually?) do a rebrand/cobrand for the product, especially if someone comes up w/ something particularly good. I think something that even a slight bit of spitballing would turn up something much better.
Some thoughts on naming:
* If the first word ends in e like securemail/privatemail you actually get email in the word
* something that could be shortened like email, but will connote secure sending - "send me that via pmail/smail"
* something that has familiar connotations of privacy/sealed delivery (registered mail?) or something might work as well
the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, in which Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States
Now, the electronic part is a given. But what about the courier part? Here's what Wikipedia says:
> Couriers are distinguished from ordinary mail services by features such as speed, security, tracking, signature, specialization and individualization of express services, and swift delivery times, which are optional for most everyday mail services. As a premium service, couriers are usually more expensive than standard mail services, and their use is typically restricted to packages where one or more of these features are considered important enough to warrant the cost.
Speed, security, individualization, premium? Those all sound like adjectives that I like!
Let's do the L'Académie française a solid. Let's adopt Courriel and apply the label only to our fast, secure, individualized, premium electronic communiques.
It should be named the Private Mail Protocol, or something. If it stands up to scrutiny, as soon as there is a nice looking e-mail client for it, I'll start using it, and try to use Gmail as little as possible, or not at all. I know Google won't adopt it, so I won't even bother to ask them to adopt it. I'll just switch.
Lots of large businesses would probably like something like this (the ones that buy rsa keyfobs and use VPNs). My old company would strongly discourage email from the company system to non company email address for security reasons.
(I dont use my personal GPG key for any work related or firstname.lastname@company.tld mail, but have a separate GPG key – who's passphrase is in a sealed envelope in the company safe so it can be made available to the company if required without needing to reveal my personal private key. If I'm hit by a bus, or if lawyers/law-enforcemet come knocking on company business - they can have the keys to the encrypted mail in my company account. Mail encrypted to _me_ at nickname@company.tld or me@mydomain.tld is useless if I'm hit by a bus, and would require lawyers/leo/courts to convince me to reveal a passphrase stored only in my head if they wanted it. (Or, you know, for the NSA to rootkit any of my devices I type my personal passphrase into…))