this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
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And THIS is the problem. How long is PGP / GPG around? I have vivid (and fond) memories of a time in the early 00s when we did encryption parties inviting normal people to help them install GPG and teach them how to encrypt their emails. And people came to these events! We had an event in a community centre where we did over 200 installs on laptops of "average Joes / Janes" in a single day.
But somehow, interest in private communication fizzled out over the last decade or so.
On the other hand, we live in a golden age of private, end-to-end encrypted communications tools. There are literally too many to list here. The problem is our end-points are extremely vulnerable to surveillance now.
Also, the PGP web of trust was a pretty terrible idea for anyone concerned about authoritarian governments. Especially "key parties" that network based on government IDs. They also barely worked in practice anyway. Web-key discovery actually has decent UX, despite being tied to a purchased domain rather than a drivers license. It works fine for people you don't know, but know by their domain. For people you know, exchanging keys via QR code or verifying keys via some hash out of band has become standard.