On 23 May 1996, Jay Haines wrote:
Reply to: RE>(Another) alternative to remailer shutdowns
Where would these message parts be put back together/decrypted? Wouldn't this require the receivers mail program to re-generate the original message?
[my stuff]
Yes, it would require work on the part of the receiver to put the message back together. This shouldn't be too difficult, though. The receiver's software could look through all random messages of the same length and xor them together to see if something non-random popped out. Alternatively, a "standard" format for these split messages could include the a random message ID as the last 160 bits of one part of the message and the SHA hash of this ID in the last 160 bits of the other part. (The idea is to keep the messages looking random for legal reasons.) Remailer operators may want to add a note to message to the effect of "For legal reasons, this remailer only sends random looking text. For information on the possible usefulness of random looking text visit <joe neutral's home page>."