B10[mg]

Based on Brian's blog entry we started discussing email encryption (using GnuPG).

We both believe way too few people use email encryption and we'd both love to see an increase in that. The reason for people not using it is pretty simple, I think. GnuPG is just too damn hard to use for the average user.

Every time I have to use the gpg binary, I find myself opening the man pages. Besides that, the whole "Web of Trust" concept just takes some thinking and understanding. Who do you trust, how much do you trust someone, why shouldn't I give someone my ultimate trust, etc.

Nerds usually don't mind a little complexity when it comes to basic things, such as emailing, yet the average Joe probably loses interest in this rather quickly. Such a shame!

So how can we get more people to encrypt their emails? Make it easier for people to use and stress the importance! You're not paranoid if you think encrypting mails is important. And don't fall for the "if you don't have anything to hide" dogma. You don't want people to read your snail mail (the mail on paper), so why would you want people to read your electronic mail? Unfortunately, as of right now, we just have to accept that it takes a little time to get started, and the documentation isn't the easiest, nor funniest stuff to read (reading other people's email is way more interesting ;-)

Besides the learning curve, there's nothing that should stop you. There are some "new" initiatives that allow you to use encryption for webmail services, such as Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail (see freenigma and keygloo for example). And of course, there's a way to use it with close to every non-webmail mail client, like MS Outlook, Thunderbird, The Bat, Eudora, pine, mutt.

Wonderful! Let's take a few minutes to create a key and read up on the concept. After that, let's all use it!

gpg, pgp