Re:Message from Facebook: this could be war
by pjc50 on Wednesday March 25, 2015 @08:13AM
(#9262375)
This is indeed why people retreat to the safety of "platforms". It's Bruce Schneier's "feudalism" argument: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.ht...
IMO the theoretically best way out of this is the user-owned cooperative, but there's very little traction for that.
Re:Message from Facebook: this could be war
by icebraining on Wednesday March 25, 2015 @08:44AM
(#9262531)
Meh, I don't trust a large "user-owned cooperative" much more than I trust Google. Then incentives of the owners may be more aligned, but the incentives of the people who actually run it aren't. For an example, see the collapse of the Spanish banking system, much of which was composed of mutual banks.
I'd trust a small cooperative, but then you still have the problem of federating between those, which brings you back to square one.
Spam, malware and phishing are huge problems with email. I doubt it will exist forever in its current form. I expect more and more restrictions (on sending and receiving) and more and more walled gardens as corporations and people attempt to better defend themselves.