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

[Julian Oliver]

..on Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 11:16:31AM +0000, Nick wrote:
> 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.

Fair enough. I understand the reasoning.

Cheers,

Julian

-- 
Julian Oliver
PGP 36EED09D
http://julianoliver.com
http://criticalengineering.org