Re: [tor-talk] Email provider for privacy-minded folk

[Moritz Bartl <moritz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

On 13.02.2013 22:47, Joe Btfsplk wrote:
> One item is how long providers retain mail, after you delete it. Some
> don't store at all; - to hrs / days / months / indefinitely. 

It is unlikely that any mail provider wipes/shreds mails on deletion and
while they go through the various processing stages. [1] Even if they
use an encrypted file system (another doubt there, why should they;
probably not even encrypted swap), as long as the system is up and
running the mail could be recovered from various places.

A big problem also is backups: Most of us do want backups. It is quite
hard to design a backup system that allows you to remove files
selectively later. If that is even what you want, since it is a backup
and you might have deleted the file by mistake. I don't know of any mail
provider that offers to selectively exclude accounts/aliases from backup.

Same for IP logs. Are they stored on a tmpfs, shredded on deletion? How
long are they kept? Even Autistici and Riseup will keep some IP/user
logs to kill spamming accounts? I doubt 24hours is enough...

Another neat feature would be accounts where the Maildir completely live
on a tmpfs -- including spool etc.

If there was any money in this, at least to cover costs, I would have
started a mail provider myself long time ago. Another showstopper is
that in Germany, every mail provider is required to install a law
enforcement blackbox and retain shitloads of logs if they have more than
9999 customers.

[1]
http://moblog.wiredwings.com/archives/20130206/Linux-Automatically-shredding-files-before-deletion.html
-- 
Moritz Bartl
https://www.torservers.net/
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