5 ms·

First-party GPG support would be so nice to have some decades ago. By now seems everyone admitted defeat. Companies standardized on email as notification system

by lrem 6y ago

First-party GPG support would be so nice to have some decades ago. By now seems everyone admitted defeat. Companies standardized on email as notification system for "you got a message in the actually secure medium". Humans standardized on using some inherently safe (but usually not open) communicator. Who is there still wanting secure email?

ajosh 6y ago
This question (and the one above right now) are good points. GPG isn't really a killer feature right now. I likewise haven't needed secure e-mail in a while. I just happened to notice it when it migrated stuff over. I stopped using my Yubikey with gpg a while back. All of that said - I'm replying to this message and not the other because there is one use for secure e-mail that may make a difference: DeltaChat. Deltachat uses autocrypt which includes your public key in headers. With autocrypt in place, Thunderbird can still read DeltaChat messages. I'm not sure if DeltaChat will ever take off in large numbers but it seems like a decent option for secure chat/IM.
- lrem 6y ago
  First time I hear of DeltaChat. Does it use email as the actual transport? Sounds prone to stupid latency. What's the benefit over Matrix?
  - brnt 6y ago
    It does, and the benefit is that anyone with an email address can already be approached via Deltachat, because all it does is send and receive email through the Autocrypt protocol, which gracefully degrades with clients that don't support it.
    - akerl_ 6y ago
      Gracefully degrading for clients that don’t support it is an un-goal of encrypted messaging.
      - ekianjo 6y ago
        You cannot read encrypted messages if you do not have gpg support. Not sure what your comment is about.
  - gsich 6y ago
    Latency is not that bad usually.
bsder 6y ago
> By now seems everyone admitted defeat. Well, since everybody is using Gmail or Office365 anyway, encrypted email is kind of pointless, no?
- gsich 6y ago
  GPG works with all mail providers.
- ekianjo 6y ago
  If you encrypt something within gmail only you and your recipient can read it. Not sure what you mean ?
  - iudqnolq 6y ago
    Their point is so can gmail, and thus the govt through various channels.
    - gsich 6y ago
      No? All they see is yhe encrypted mail.
submeta 6y ago
> Companies standardized on email as notification system for "you got a message in the actually secure medium". This is so ridiculous. I have to log in to a dozen different sites to download documents. And those sites are 2FA secured, so I have no means to automate. Of course these companies never heared of (REST) APIs. - This is such a step backwards.
- lrem 6y ago
  Frankly, I prefer my bank and insurance to have minimal access surface.
  - 411111111111111 6y ago
    But why don't they support just sending them to your email, gpg encrypted if sensitive? They'd still be secure and significantly easier to archive I know it's for liability reasons, but annoying nontheless
    - lrem 6y ago
      That's an extra thing they could get wrong. Seeing how some banks cannot deal with copy-pasting my legal name correctly, I prefer to not give them anything else out of the ordinary.

by lrem 6y ago

ajosh 6y ago

This question (and the one above right now) are good points. GPG isn't really a killer feature right now. I likewise haven't needed secure e-mail in a while. I just happened to notice it when it migrated stuff over. I stopped using my Yubikey with gpg a while back. All of that said - I'm replying to this message and not the other because there is one use for secure e-mail that may make a difference: DeltaChat. Deltachat uses autocrypt which includes your public key in headers. With autocrypt in place, Thunderbird can still read DeltaChat messages. I'm not sure if DeltaChat will ever take off in large numbers but it seems like a decent option for secure chat/IM.

lrem 6y ago
First time I hear of DeltaChat. Does it use email as the actual transport? Sounds prone to stupid latency. What's the benefit over Matrix?
- brnt 6y ago
  It does, and the benefit is that anyone with an email address can already be approached via Deltachat, because all it does is send and receive email through the Autocrypt protocol, which gracefully degrades with clients that don't support it.
  - akerl_ 6y ago
    Gracefully degrading for clients that don’t support it is an un-goal of encrypted messaging.
    - ekianjo 6y ago
      You cannot read encrypted messages if you do not have gpg support. Not sure what your comment is about.
- gsich 6y ago
  Latency is not that bad usually.

bsder 6y ago

> By now seems everyone admitted defeat. Well, since everybody is using Gmail or Office365 anyway, encrypted email is kind of pointless, no?

gsich 6y ago
GPG works with all mail providers.
ekianjo 6y ago
If you encrypt something within gmail only you and your recipient can read it. Not sure what you mean ?
- iudqnolq 6y ago
  Their point is so can gmail, and thus the govt through various channels.
  - gsich 6y ago
    No? All they see is yhe encrypted mail.

submeta 6y ago

> Companies standardized on email as notification system for "you got a message in the actually secure medium". This is so ridiculous. I have to log in to a dozen different sites to download documents. And those sites are 2FA secured, so I have no means to automate. Of course these companies never heared of (REST) APIs. - This is such a step backwards.

lrem 6y ago
Frankly, I prefer my bank and insurance to have minimal access surface.
- 411111111111111 6y ago
  But why don't they support just sending them to your email, gpg encrypted if sensitive? They'd still be secure and significantly easier to archive I know it's for liability reasons, but annoying nontheless
  - lrem 6y ago
    That's an extra thing they could get wrong. Seeing how some banks cannot deal with copy-pasting my legal name correctly, I prefer to not give them anything else out of the ordinary.