[Discuss] Relevance of PGP?

[me at mattgillen.net (Matthew Gillen)]

On 06/09/2011 02:48 PM, Doug wrote:
>> I make sure to use it when my wife sends me email to my work email
>> address.  My employer doesn't need to be reading my personal email
>> (there are laws against employers reading personal mail, but why trust
>> people to abide by the law when you don't have to?).  I also
>> opportunistically use it whenever I can with other people, not out of
>> need but more to establish the habit (like wearing a seat-belt).
> 
> No way I could get my wife to use new fangled technology :-) I am having enough

Don't get me wrong, I had to set everything up w/ thunderbird (get
enigmail extention, install gpg binaries, set up per-recipient rules so
that when she writes email to me it defaults to signed+encrypted).  All
she had to do is know her passphrase, and everything else happens
automatically.

>> Although I have to say, I've been impressed lately by my insurance agent
>> and my mortgage broker in that they've graduated to sending me things in
>> encrypted zip files (when what they're sending includes sensitive
>> personal data of mine), and they don't balk at all when I send them
>> encrypted zips.  They're inching closer to the right solution...
> 
> This makes some sense to me: lawyers, guns and money people should be
> using encryption. How do you get the key from them? I doubt they
> attend the BLU meeting :-)

Oh, it's not /that/ secure.  Generally they will send me the password
via a separate email, or if they are really savvy, through a secondary
channel (like a phone call).

Matt