Re: Yahoo to reuse email addresses - re: Identifier persistence

On 20 June 2013 23:53, Tim Berners-Lee <timbl@w3.org> wrote:

> As email addresses become increasingly the grounding point for identity
> on the net, interesting to ask whether we should be expecting some
> standards of persistence ...  or should we be always quoting them with a
> date?
>

Very interesting question.  Electronic mail tends to be a one to one
relationship with identity, where as physical mail boxes are regularly
recycled.

It *perhaps* seems valid for a business to choose to recycle addresses, in
some cases.  Clearly there are trade-offs here.

Perhaps designers, that are sensitive to recycling, can use email as a
composite key to your profile (which e.g. may include your real name, a
created date etc.).  Facebook actually does this quite well imho.  ie when
you sign in you use your email identifier, but when you are logged in,
everything is keyed off your real name, which is quite an intuitive user
experience.


>
> Timbl
>
>
> > """Yahoo tells security critics to chillax regarding its email recycling
> program
> >
> > So much for trying to be nice. Yahoo’s latest bid to lift itself from
> the tech also-ran swamp with an email recycling initiative has been
> criticized for potential security threats to dormant users. To try and calm
> down the pitchfork-wielding crowd, the company has released a statement
> describing various security measures that will be taken to insure past
> users’ data and security—but they may not cover all the bases."""
> >
> >
> http://www.techhive.com/article/2042508/yahoo-tells-security-critics-to-chillax-regarding-its-email-recycling-program.html
>