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?
Comments
Cause it is ignorant in
Cause it is ignorant in general until it strikes em with the thunder.
p.s. i'd love to see some gpg support by my favourite gmail...
False perception of privacy.
They are a lot like my grandmother used to be. She thought nothing of writing (in very tiny script) a moderate letter on the back and half of the front of a plain postcard and sending it through the mail. She could not imagine the postman or anyone else WANTING to read what she wrote, much less DOING it.
Using PGP to encrypt emails is like putting your letter in a security envelope and sealing it. Protected from unwanted eyes.