undefined | Better HN

0 pointsxp8411mo ago0 comments

I agree wholeheartedly -- it's like getting a postcard saying "You have an important message from your doctor, go visit the doctor's office to find out what."

I respect that some of this is ass-covering because of overreaching regulation (or in many cases probably overly-conservative readings of the vague regulations) especially with respect to HIPAA and Euro-style "Privacy" legislation, but personally I'd prefer to opt-out of all types of nanny-ism trying to 'protect my privacy' by sending me content-free email with links, that then require that I 'click to view' and then, 90% of the time now, return to my fucking email to retrieve a stupid code.

0 comments

l7211mo ago

I would happily go into my bank or medical provider and upload my pgp public key for them to encrypt emails with…

Email is an incredibly important communication database and I expect my important communications to be there and be searchable.

LoganDark11mo ago

My doctor does it ("you have one new notification, log into our system to see it"), financial systems do it ("something something happened on your credit report, log into our system to see it"), legal systems do it ("you have something something communication, log in to download it"), etc. It's utterly infuriating.

SoftTalker11mo ago

Some of these places are between a rock and a hard place. HIPAA or other rules may prevent a doctor from using email to send you personal medical information such as test results. For any of them, email isn't "secure" and they don't want to be accused of "leaking" personal or confidential information.

GPG exists, but it's been a non-starter for the average user the entire time, so no reason to expect that it will suddenly become workable now.

briHass11mo ago

Ironic, because it's assumed your email is insecure and visible to more than just you, but it's used as a password reset and/or 2FA mechanism for almost everything.

It would be nice if sites had a checkbox that allowed you to affirm that your email is secure and private, so then detailed emails were sent.

1 more reply

LoganDark11mo ago

It could also be that they want to know when some communication has been received (by the real person, not the email server) and that's not possible with email. I still maintain that I hate that practice because I just don't want anyone to have that information, I want to be invisible.

AStonesThrow11mo ago

> HIPAA or other rules

Sure, sure, rules, yeah.

But there are plenty of reasons that are as numerous as reasons to build a walled garden.

If they’re storing your records, then they control the audit trail. They detect every time you, or someone, visited that site, logged in, viewed pages, downloaded or viewed a document, changed settings, updated profile, added contact info, deleted contact info.

They control the expiration and retention periods. They control the file formats. They control the uptime and the downtime. They control the horizontal and the vertical. Oh wait, that’s on T.V.

There will be increasing gauntlets to run and obstacles and hurdles to the consumer getting our hands on documents and information. Until we really need that proprietary online viewer to open the file at all. Or at least their mobile app. Or you could pay fees for records access. It costs them to store it all, does it not?

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

l7211mo ago

I would happily go into my bank or medical provider and upload my pgp public key for them to encrypt emails with…

Email is an incredibly important communication database and I expect my important communications to be there and be searchable.

LoganDark11mo ago

SoftTalker11mo ago

GPG exists, but it's been a non-starter for the average user the entire time, so no reason to expect that it will suddenly become workable now.

briHass11mo ago

Ironic, because it's assumed your email is insecure and visible to more than just you, but it's used as a password reset and/or 2FA mechanism for almost everything.

It would be nice if sites had a checkbox that allowed you to affirm that your email is secure and private, so then detailed emails were sent.

1 more reply

LoganDark11mo ago

AStonesThrow11mo ago

> HIPAA or other rules

Sure, sure, rules, yeah.

But there are plenty of reasons that are as numerous as reasons to build a walled garden.

They control the expiration and retention periods. They control the file formats. They control the uptime and the downtime. They control the horizontal and the vertical. Oh wait, that’s on T.V.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse