The Girl Who Wasn't There

Although we have had strong cryptography like Pretty Good Privacy available to the public for years iMessage raises the interesting point that unless your device comes with integrated crypto the public won’t be aware of it or use it. Ubiquity of crypto for personal communication is still a long way off.

People have an assumption of privacy for the files on their own computer and phone and some seem to extend that logical privacy to the transmission of data. They have a false sense of security for the networks they use or rely on security through obscurity, hypothesising that no one will care for their drop in the ocean.

Security still implies unnecessary complication and questionable secrets for many. Embracing crypto requires education and for ordinary people the emotional barrier to entry is high. I try not to keep secrets as living in public and private denial of my gender identity caused havoc but yesterday I sent my first OpenPGP encrypted email.

I still have a lot to learn about the technology and it’s implications. In a culture saturated with social media, where people are encouraged to offer up not just their communications but social, cultural and political preferences. The very networks they build and move in become tools of law enforcement, governments and big business.

Peoples assumptions of privacy may be unfounded but can we motivate the public to begin embracing crypto?

Apple’s iMessage encryption trips up feds’ surveillance | Politics and Law – CNET News.