[liberationtech] the 14th reason not to start using PGP is out!

[Nick]

Quoth Julian Oliver:
> Indeed, but there's a wide gulf between asserting that people 
> should not use (or
> start to use) PGP at all until a better solution is available - as he does - and
> developing (and testing) alternatives in parallel. After all, any alternative
> might prove to be more or equally as vulnerable as PGP.
> 
> For the time being PGP continues to work pretty well here for my
> non-life-and-death communication needs. I'd rather use PGP than send mail in the
> clear. I'm sure this sentiment is shared by many others.

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, I think this is missing the 
point of the OP slightly. He isn't saying "don't use PGP now" so 
much as "PGP / SMTP / IMAP is never going to be the solution we 
really need" - for everyone, not just the particularly vulnerable 
(who are still at risk in several key ways, such as failing open and 
metadata analysis) or technically savvy.

I use PGP, and I am very very glad to have it, but (against my 
expectations) Carlo has completely won me over to the position that 
it's better for everyone if we start again with email, rather than 
try (and largely fail) to convince ordinary people to change their 
mail habits, providers to change their setups, etc.

I would still advocate for PGP + existing email standards at the 
present, where it's needed, but don't see it as a way to
provide good safety for everyone.

Nick