Stop Using Encrypted Email
I&#x27;m going to say the same thing I said last time this came up -- so what should we use instead, then?  What do we use if we want secure messaging, <i>but with the (social) affordances of email</i>?  There still doesn&#x27;t seem to be any answer to that!<p>No, Signal is not an acceptable answer; it replicates text messaging, not email.  In more detail:<p>1. Email is potentially long-form. I sit down and type it from my computer. Text-messaging is always short, although possibly it&#x27;s a series of short messages. A series of short emails, by contrast, is an annoyance; it&#x27;s something you try to avoid sending (even though you inevitably do when it turns out you got something wrong). Similarly, you don&#x27;t typically hold rapid-fire conversations over email.<p>2. On that point, email says, you don&#x27;t need to read this immediately. I expect a text message will be probably be read in a few minutes, and probably replied to later that day (if there&#x27;s no particular urgency). I expect an email will be probably read in a few hours, and probably replied to in a few days (if there&#x27;s no particular urgency).<p>3. It&#x27;s OK to cold-email people. To text someone you need their phone number; it&#x27;s for people you know. By contrast, email addresses are things that people frequently make public specifically so that strangers can contact them.<p>So what am I supposed to do for secure messaging that replicates that? The best answer I&#x27;ve gotten for this so far -- other than PGP which is apparently bad -- is &quot;install Signal on your computer in addition to your phone and just use it as if it&#x27;s email&quot;. That&#x27;s... not really a satisfactory answer. Like, I expect a multi-page Signal message talking about everything I&#x27;ve been up to for the past month to annoy its recipient, who is likely reading it on their phone, not their computer. And I can&#x27;t send someone a Signal message about a paper they wrote that I have some comments on, not unless they&#x27;re going to put their fricking phone number on their website.<p>So what do I do here? The secure email replacement just doesn&#x27;t seem to be here yet.<p>(I&#x27;m guessing in case (3), the authors would suggest just using unencrypted email, but what about problems (1) and (2)?)