IETF Logo Mail Archive

Re: Scope for self-destructing email?

"John Levine" <johnl@taugh.com> Tue, 15 August 2017 02:48 UTC

Return-Path: <johnl@taugh.com>
X-Original-To: ietf@ietfa.amsl.com
Delivered-To: ietf@ietfa.amsl.com
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ietfa.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 890D01324AB for <ietf@ietfa.amsl.com>; Mon, 14 Aug 2017 19:48:30 -0700 (PDT)
X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at amsl.com
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Spam-Score: -1.901
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.901 tagged_above=-999 required=5 tests=[BAYES_00=-1.9, SPF_PASS=-0.001] autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no
Received: from mail.ietf.org ([4.31.198.44]) by localhost (ietfa.amsl.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id yLVYs88locxM for <ietf@ietfa.amsl.com>; Mon, 14 Aug 2017 19:48:29 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from miucha.iecc.com (www.iecc.com [IPv6:2001:470:1f07:1126::4945:4343]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by ietfa.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0F72B1324A1 for <ietf@ietf.org>; Mon, 14 Aug 2017 19:48:28 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (qmail 83576 invoked from network); 15 Aug 2017 02:48:28 -0000
Received: from unknown (64.57.183.18) by mail1.iecc.com with QMQP; 15 Aug 2017 02:48:28 -0000
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2017 01:44:05 -0000
Message-ID: <20170815014405.1373.qmail@ary.lan>
From: John Levine <johnl@taugh.com>
To: ietf@ietf.org
Cc: vaibhavsinghacads@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Scope for self-destructing email?
In-Reply-To: <CACZ1GipivEf31iHchaM1OPFQF4QkfVRGVNsY_vVx=J8oFZ0JZA@mail.gmail.com>
Organization:
X-Headerized: yes
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit
Archived-At: <https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf/v_zTc6peIXlwS8v1AIXmE0gWDCU>
X-BeenThere: ietf@ietf.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.22
Precedence: list
List-Id: IETF-Discussion <ietf.ietf.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/options/ietf>, <mailto:ietf-request@ietf.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/ietf/>
List-Post: <mailto:ietf@ietf.org>
List-Help: <mailto:ietf-request@ietf.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf>, <mailto:ietf-request@ietf.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2017 02:48:30 -0000

In article <CACZ1GipivEf31iHchaM1OPFQF4QkfVRGVNsY_vVx=J8oFZ0JZA@mail.gmail.com> you write:
>With regards to this, me and my friends were thinking about the idea of a
>self-destructing email, wherein the sender will mark the mail to be
>destroyed (expunged from the server) once the receiver(s) have finished
>reading it/after a time period chosen by the sender.

This can never work, for both technical and policy reasons.

The technical reason, as others have explained, is that recipient
systems can do anything they want with mail they receieve.  If I got
mail with a "must delete" flag I would probably reply that it's been
deleted and then archive it forever.  (I live in the United States,
where that is quite legal.)

The other is that there are organizations that for good policy reasons archive
all of their incoming and outgoing mail, such as banks and other financial
institutions.  Imagine if you sent a message to your broker saying "sell
all of my stocks" with the delete flag.  Whether or not a broker would
act on it, no broker I know would delete it.

R's,
John

v2.23.0 | Report a Bug | By Email