(C) Alec Muffett's DropSafe blog.
Author Name: Alec Muffett
This story was originally published on allecmuffett.com. [1]
License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.[2]
 

More evidence of how the #DigitalMarketsAct demand for #Interoperability will turn #EndToEndEncryption Messenger Apps into festering pools of Spam

2022-10-19 12:19:30+00:00

Via a discussion on HackerNews, I came across this 2014 email to the ModernCryptography list, outlining spam prevention from the content-centric approach that GMail takes, via Mike Hearn — a former GMail engineer.

It’s a great read, and I particularly noted this bit, with my emphasis:

Systems like WhatsApp don’t seem to suffer spam, but I presume that’s just an indication that their spam/abuse team is doing a good job. They are in the easiest position. When you have central control everything becomes a million times easier because you can change anything at any time. You can terminate accounts and control signups. If you don’t have central control, you have to rely exclusively on inbound filtering and have to just suck it up when spammers try to find ways around your defences. Plus you often lose control over the clients.

Regular followers of this blog will of course already watched this video from USENIX Enigma 2017 explaining the contemporary approach of WhatsApp for fighting spam.

As Hearn says: “Trying to refight [a content-centric war against spam] in the encrypted context would be like trying to fight a regular war blindfolded and handcuffed. You’d be dead within minutes” — but that’s precisely what the Digital Markets Act is demanding, to paraphrase: “…you can have your encryption, but you’re no longer permitted agency and control over who is using the platform, because you’re a wicked American monopoly.”

So: the Digital Markets Act will fill our pockets with spam, because they are removing from platforms the ability to police behaviour.

Unless, like Hearn, you desire and accept using proof-of-work and blockchains, to cap the amount of messages which you can send each day, and are content to pay-real-money-to-send.

No more free-as-in-beer communication.
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[1] URL: https://alecmuffett.com/article/16355
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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