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by Zak 2771 days ago
[Repeat rant about people not adopting PGP when we've had it for 27 years]

Nothing about a smartphone prevents email from being encrypted. The fact that nobody's sending encrypted email does, but that's a user adoption problem rather than a technical problem. The technical problem is solved, solved well, and has been solved for decades.
2 comments
Spooky23 2771 days ago
Encryption is easy. Key management is not. PGP is a lousy solution. Too difficult to use and sacrifices too much functionality.

The world needs something like iMessage but more open.

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Zak 2771 days ago
Key management is moderately difficult, and more of a UX problem than a technical one. A UX very much like that of iMessage could be built on top of PGP and keyservers.

We've had the ability to do this for a long time, but only a few major players are in a position to ensure sufficient user adoption, and they're not interested in creating anything that doesn't drive users to their walled gardens.

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dqv 2771 days ago
The bigger problem is that neither Apple nor Google have implemented device-local PGP encryption in their default email clients. Apple is one-step ahead and actually has had s/mime support for a while, but it really needs wide support on Android phones as well to become ubiquitous. It would set an implied standard for all other email apps on iOS and Android.
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