Anonymity and certification: e-mail, a case study

Awareness of legal constraints regarding the use and provision of electronic systems, leads us to question the feasibility and applicability of technical solutions that take into account security and privacy regulations. We discuss the issue with reference to directives of the European Community and Italian legislation. In particular we study the case of e-mail, proposing a protocol that retains as many characteristics of the e-mail as possible, yet allowing for complete anonymity and proofs of correct deploy. We discuss the implications of taking anonymity to the extremes and evaluate the limits of the protocol.

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