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A comment on Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by kingnothing on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @11:18AM (#22046205)
> How do you solve the "won't read my emails" problem ?

Encrypt it before sending.

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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by ekianjo on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @11:30AM (#22046332)
How do your friends read it then?
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by reaperducer on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @02:10PM (#22048171)
How do your friends read it then?

Isn't the point of a diary that nobody can read it but you? That's why they have locks on them.

If you want a diary that other people can read, that's called a blog.

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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by mvanbaak on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @12:02PM (#22046747)
This has been solved for a very long time already. It's called PGP.
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by dredmorbius on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @01:35PM (#22047817)
PGP and friends are, in practice, mutually exclusive.
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by akoncius on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @02:52PM (#22048572)
if you want to let friends know what is going on you just simply send email/IM/SMS
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by arp242 on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @04:35AM (#22052902)
To paraphrase jwz: "Some people, when confronted with a problem, think 'I know, I'll use PGP.' Now they have two problems."

More seriously, PGP is really hard. I think it has some potential for signing emails from your bank, Amazon, etc. but other than that ... it's just a pain. I'm not a crypto expert but a reasonably skilled IT professional, and even I struggle with it.

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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by andy_ppp on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @04:02AM (#22052735)
Yes, the message is encrypted with a key, you only get access to this key by decrypting it with your private key. Everyone on the email has the key for the message encrypted with their public key. Hence the privacy is not perfect but pretty good.
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by ekianjo on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @06:40PM (#22050390)
Good luck convincing non technical users.
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by wizzwizz4 on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @11:51AM (#22046605)
Encrypt it with a symmetric key, and then encrypt the symmetric key separately with each of your friends' public keys.
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by topmonk on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @10:45PM (#22051605)
But then if just one of your friend's private key is stolen, you lose control of everything you wrote, past or present.
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by wizzwizz4 on Thursday January 16, 2020 @05:02AM (#22063120)
Well, yeah. That's what sharing the things you've written with them is.
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by topmonk on Friday January 17, 2020 @12:02AM (#22072026)
Well, there are algorithms that support perfect forward security.... but nah
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by wizzwizz4 on Saturday January 18, 2020 @08:16AM (#22084261)
This is a good argument for not rolling your own.
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by dunefox on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @11:52AM (#22046619)
By giving them the key?
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Re:Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email by ekianjo on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @06:40PM (#22050393)
Right. Have you tried doing that?
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