Relevance of PGP?

[markw-FJ05HQ0HCKaWd6l5hS35sQ at public.gmane.org (Mark Woodward)]

On 06/10/2011 08:50 PM, Tom Metro wrote:
> Mark Woodward wrote:
>> OTR encrypts an IM TCP stream so that agents between the two end points
>> shouldn't be able to read the data.
> Technically, I believe OTR encrypts the message, which then gets handed
> off to the particular IM protocol, which in turn is transported via TCP.
> I imagine there is a fair bit of data leakage in those intermediary
> layers, such as identifying both parties in the conversation.
Yes.
> One can envision a more security oriented IM protocol where intercepting
> a connection between a client and the server would expose nothing about
> who the other client is (the interceptor would be able to identify the
> IP of at least one client), and with the use of padding and no-op
> messages you could also obscure the size and timing of your messages.
Well, the end points must be public, otherwise the packet could not be 
routed.
> (Have you heard that encrypted voice streams that use a variable bitrate
> codec (for example, Skype) can be decoded by mapping the pattern of data
> bursts to English phrases?)
Yes I did, thats f-ing wild.  I fear that with enough computing power 
backing up deviously clever people, human existence is in for some 
serious change. Read Philip K. Dick "The Dead Past." Not a direct 
analogy, but pretty similar.
>   -Tom
>