New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Why there's no email address portability like with phone numbers?
Ask HN: Why there's no email address portability like with phone numbers?
3 by pllbnk | 12 comments on Hacker News.
Phone number portability has been standard worldwide for years, allowing us to switch carriers while keeping our numbers. Yet email addresses, which have become more important than phone numbers over the last 20 years or so, lack any similar portability mechanism. If you've used a @gmail.com or @yahoo.com address for years, you're essentially locked into that provider. Changing means updating countless accounts and risking missed communications. Often there's even no way to update the accounts. Are there any initiatives or technical proposals for implementing email portability that you're aware of? Given the EU's experience with digital regulations, could they pioneer email portability regulations to reduce vendor lock-in? If it's been just a regulatory oversight, is there a way to initiate this regulation by creating and signing a petition or something like that? Edit: I see that some commenters are focused on the technical aspects and how the email protocols work currently. Technical aspects were not the reason for my question. The reason is to know whether such initiatives exist. The goal is to transfer the power from the corporation is to the people via government regulations. It's harmful when a decision as simple as creating an email address on a mailbox with a promised 1 GB of storage 20 years ago keeps you dependent on that single provider essentially forever because the circumstances changed and email became the primary means of identification.
3 by pllbnk | 12 comments on Hacker News.
Phone number portability has been standard worldwide for years, allowing us to switch carriers while keeping our numbers. Yet email addresses, which have become more important than phone numbers over the last 20 years or so, lack any similar portability mechanism. If you've used a @gmail.com or @yahoo.com address for years, you're essentially locked into that provider. Changing means updating countless accounts and risking missed communications. Often there's even no way to update the accounts. Are there any initiatives or technical proposals for implementing email portability that you're aware of? Given the EU's experience with digital regulations, could they pioneer email portability regulations to reduce vendor lock-in? If it's been just a regulatory oversight, is there a way to initiate this regulation by creating and signing a petition or something like that? Edit: I see that some commenters are focused on the technical aspects and how the email protocols work currently. Technical aspects were not the reason for my question. The reason is to know whether such initiatives exist. The goal is to transfer the power from the corporation is to the people via government regulations. It's harmful when a decision as simple as creating an email address on a mailbox with a promised 1 GB of storage 20 years ago keeps you dependent on that single provider essentially forever because the circumstances changed and email became the primary means of identification.
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