As I was finishing a brief article on online privacy for another site I could not help but ask myself why the general public does not take a more proactive stance in regards to public key cryptography.

I personally think there is no reason why everyone should not be encrypting and signing their e-mail. It is not that hard to set up in my opinion and the benefits are numerous.

If banks and online companies such as Paypal instituted a program where they started signing their e-mails to verify its integrity and authenticity, a huge portion of online fraud could potentially be stopped.

Unfortunately, I only have one associate that is as interested in online privacy as I am. I have brought up the importance of public key cryptography to others and they have shown little to no interest.

I don't understand why security and privacy is not a priority for people even if they are "inconvenienced" by an additional step in their e-mailing routine.

Why do you think that the populous chooses to ignore cryptography?