Skiff, the private email provider has been acquired by Notion. It is set to shut down its services after 6 months.

Zagorath , 4 months ago

How in the hells do you do E2E encrypted email anyway? Email is a pretty well-defined protocol, and that protocol is not encrypted.

We've had GPG for a while, but that requires the other user also be on a platform that supports it. Was E2E only for other users of Skiff?

HKayn , 4 months ago

I haven't used Skiff myself, but I would guess that that's what it was. Proton and Tuta also feature E2E encryption, and it's exactly how it works there, too.

LemoineFairclough , 4 months ago

I believe Skiff would automatically start using end to end encryption when it was available, without any user needing to enable it for any specific email, using the Web Key Directory standard: https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/blob/1634bea9d2a66ef5804b68d18d4218e0b7a8b806/docs/email.md#openpgp-compatible-services

It's not good for me that an email provider that supports that is undergoing dramatic changes, as an open standard that protects my privacy is more useful when it is used with more services.

kautau , 4 months ago

undergoing dramatic changes

I mean they are just shutting down completely. Notion is not coming up with their own E2E solution, they are just acquiring them to kill them, probably because skiff pages was a light competitor. I don’t know if it’s the founders or investors of skiff who pushed this decision, but it’s a sign of the shitty system either way.

Chakravanti , 4 months ago

I'm glad I'm not the only one that can GPG. Never met anyone willing to learn.

Zagorath , 4 months ago

It's not just a matter of learning, but also using a platform that supports it. If someone is part of the vast majority who prefer to just use webmail like gmail.com, GPG is just straight-up not an option, no matter how much they might be willing to learn.

Chakravanti , 4 months ago

Those who use more, listen to less.

Vub , 4 months ago

The entire service didn’t feel very reliable from the start. And look what happened.