[talk] How I stopped worrying, and learned to love GPG

[George Rosamond]

Michael W. Lucas:
> On Sat, Feb 21, 2015 at 08:08:24PM -0500, George Rosamond wrote:
>> There is an author on this list who gave a great try in popularizing PGP
>> for a more general audience, and maybe due to the books title, maybe due
>> to it being in the pre-Snowden era, it didn't sell in any significant
>> quantities.  He started from the reality that a few people encrypting
>> email contradicts its function, as if only few emails on the internet is
>> encrypted, it's by default suspicious, unlike, say, SSL/TLS web traffic.
> 
> Even Snowden didn't resuscitate sales of that book.
> 

Maybe not, but when the 'effect' hit journalists in particular, the book
was pretty dated.

> Those people who care, care deeply. Snowden made them care even more
> deeply. But the pool of people who care is tiny.
> 
> Snowden did not expand the pool of people willing to use PGP.

I disagree strongly, at least to the significant anecdotal stuff I know
directly and indirectly.

Greenwald, in particular, has made a strong case. He started working
with Snowden a month later than he should have since he didn't have his
keys setup, nor OTR, Tor, etc.  I don't just want to dwell on
journalists, but that's where I've witnessed it closely. There are now
regular conferences and events, not to mention online how-tos, focused
on PGP use. For a significant layer of journalists today, there is a
recognition that not having keys publicly available may mean you could
lose the next significant whistleblower knocking at your door.

Look at the usage of Secure Drop for a bunch of periodicals.  Wikipedia
it if you don't know it.  There is a shift, and unfortunately, it's
*our* scene that is last to recognize it.

g