Description
This article is from the PGP FAQ, by Jeff Licquia jalicqui@prairienet.org with numerous contributions by
others.
1.2. Why should I encrypt my mail? I'm not doing anything illegal!
You should encrypt your e-mail for the same reason that you don't
write all of your correspondence on the back of a post card. E-mail is
actually far less secure than the postal system. With the post office,
you at least put your letter inside an envelope to hide it from casual
snooping. Take a look at the header area of any e-mail message that
you receive and you will see that it has passed through a number of
nodes on its way to you. Every one of these nodes presents the
opportunity for snooping. Encryption in no way should imply illegal
activity. It is simply intended to keep personal thoughts personal.
Xenon <an48138@anon.penet.fi> puts it like this:
Crime? If you are not a politician, research scientist, investor, CEO,
lawyer, celebrity, libertarian in a repressive society, investor, or
person having too much fun, and you do not send e-mail about your
private sex life, financial/political/legal/scientific plans, or
gossip then maybe you don't need PGP, but at least realize that
privacy has nothing to do with crime and is in fact what keeps the
world from falling apart. Besides, PGP is FUN. You never had a secret
decoder ring? Boo! -Xenon (Copyright 1993, Xenon)
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security, PGP, Pretty Good Privacy, encryption, NSA, RSA, crack, glossary, signature, signing, verifying, keys, passphrase, hash, cryptography
