Email Encryption - Do you / would you use it?

Animal

Just wondering what you guys think of the use of email encryption. Do you use it?

If you don't, are you just not interested in it, or do you not know enough about it? Would you use it if you knew how, or if it was easier to set up?

A few recent news stories highlighted the ever-increasing need for encryption and how generally privacy is declining:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/14/eu_data_retention_vote/
http://www.betanews.com/article/NSA_Monitoring_Net_Communications/1135406234
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4536018.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4538286.stm

What do you think?

Xcelerate

I don't really have anything I hide in my emails. I never use personal information online anyway, so my that way even if people intercept messages, I'll still be safe.

Of course, encryption is cool. The only reason I would do it, if I did, would be because coded data is neat.

pudovkin

I've tried once, but seemed so complicated that I quit about this.
Installing the security plugin onto Outlook, creating the keys, sending your public key to people, than asking them to install the plugin also. Sooo boring... hehehehe

And understanding Google policy about mail (which they have access to your message's content), I'm totally relaxed about this.

Perhaps I shouldn't. Sad

Animal

I think it used to be a fair bit more complex than it is now. The initial set up still takes a while, but after that, using keyservers etc. mean you don't have to distribute your keys any more and encryption/signing is just a single click away. You can now also use PGP/MIME to sign all your emails - this doesn't interfere with your files or even html formatting, and any recepients who are interested can check out how to sign/encrypt emails. Anyone who's not interested will just get a tiny .asc file attachment that they can ignore.

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about Google's policy on reading your mail - ISPs and other hacking nerds may read all your mail, but the increasingly advanced phishing scams could be reading all your email, getting info they could use.

Just a thought.... now I'd better put my tinfoil hat back on.....

Laughing

pudovkin

Absolutely agree with Animal.
I think things are going to get easier and easier.
But Google's policy are a pain in the... When you agree with Google, you're legally exposed. And you are exposing someone who sent you a message. And this sucks. Wink