It's still extremely difficult.

If we assume that the threshold of what is "difficult" is for example 1) installing a desktop application, or even running a deskop OS.

2) Running an email provider other than what you are already doing (gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail, ...), or switching email providers

3) Copying and pasting text or using files.

This was perhaps a viable thing to do for users in 2005 because if you were on the internet, chances are you at least had a desktop computer, and if you used email chances are you already had to struggle with an email client.

But now? Anything that isn't as easy as installing an app on your device (a device that isn't a full computer) is "difficult".

It's not that it's harder today, it's that everything else is easier (Like telegram/signal and other privacy-minded services), and that there are now 6 billion internet users and most never used a computer and never will.

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zikduruqe 5 hours ago | parent [-]

> It's still extremely difficult.

I don't see how. You just type "gpg -e -r receipient@domain.com filename.txt". It doesn't get much simpler than that. It's not like you are using ffmpeg, imagemagick, or other programs with a hundred switches in it.

Also PGP/GnuPG is not only for email. I encrypt and decrypt hundreds and hundreds of payloads per day, programmatically between trusted and untrusted networks.

And it is mandatory for each employee to upload their public key to our keystore so that we can deliver private information to them securely over Slack, Teams, or other communication channels.

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alkonaut an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> You just type "gpg -e -r receipient@domain.com filename.txt".

I assure you it is not that simple. For example, I'm a HN user, developer since 30 years. I know that you referred to what's known as a "terminal" or "shell" here, but that's already way WAY too difficult for 99.9% of users.

And even in my terminal I can assure you it won't work: "'gpg' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."

I could install it. It would be a right pain though. and it doesn't help if the recipient of my email can't install it without me sending a long list of instructions!

Meanwhile my dad had zero problems installing signal. There's a difference to how easy it gets.

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dylan604 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Tell me you're a nerd without telling me you're a nerd. Maybe you've moved the goalposts to "it's easy for tech dorks" vs "it's a total pain in the arse for your mom to use'. If the goal is to have encrypted email everywhere, running anything in via command line is out. If you can't recognize that, then you're clearly just trolling