linux-kernel - [PATCH v2] Documentation: process: Document suitability of Proton Mail for kernel development

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Date:   Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:23:21 +0000
From:   Conor Dooley <conor@...nel.org>
To:     corbet@....net
Cc:     Conor Dooley <conor.dooley@...rochip.com>, broonie@...nel.org,
        konstantin@...uxfoundation.org, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v2] Documentation: process: Document suitability of Proton Mail for kernel development

From: Conor Dooley <conor.dooley@...rochip.com>

Proton Mail automatically picks up PGP keys for those with kernel.org
accounts (and other domains!) which provide WKD for their users & uses
them to encrypt emails, including patches.

Document the behaviour & Proton Mail's unsuitability for kernel
development.

Reviewed-by: Konstantin Ryabitsev <konstantin@...uxfoundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Mark Brown <broonie@...nel.org>
Signed-off-by: Conor Dooley <conor.dooley@...rochip.com>
---
Changes in v2:
- Add section about why encrypted mail may be an issue
- Use Konstantin's wording about the bridge.
---
 Documentation/process/email-clients.rst | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst b/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
index fc2c46f3f82d..471e1f93fa09 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
@@ -350,3 +350,23 @@ although tab2space problem can be solved with external editor.
 
 Another problem is that Gmail will base64-encode any message that has a
 non-ASCII character. That includes things like European names.
+
+Proton Mail
+***********
+
+Proton Mail has a "feature" where it looks up keys using Web Key Directory
+(WKD) and encrypts mail to any recipients for which it finds a key.
+Kernel.org publishes the WKD for all developers who have kernel.org accounts.
+As a result, emails sent using Proton Mail to kernel.org addresses will be
+encrypted.
+Unfortunately, Proton Mail does not provide a mechanism to disable the
+automatic encryption, viewing it as a privacy feature.
+The automatic encryption feature is also enabled for mail sent via the Proton
+Mail Bridge, so this affects all outgoing messages, including patches sent with
+``git send-email``.
+Encrypted mail adds unnecessary friction, as other developers may not have mail
+clients, or tooling, configured for use with encrypted mail and some mail
+clients may encrypt responses to encrypted mail for all recipients, including
+the mailing lists.
+Unless a way to disable this "feature" is introduced, Proton Mail is unsuited
+to kernel development.
-- 
2.39.0