this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
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Privacy
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Its crypto from the 90s and email is not meant to be secure. Some examples:
Only the mail body is protected, headers and metadata arent, so an attacker still knows with who you are talking about what.
Replies contain the full thread, if one person messes up once, the entire chain is unencrypted.
No ephemeral keys, no cleanly defined rotation mechanism. If someone gets your key, all past messages are also accessible.
It depends on your threat model. The actual crypto portion of it holds up, at least until we have crypto-relevant quantum computers.
If you want anonymization and PFS for basic messaging, yeah PGP + email isn't going to cut it. But if you're sending documents, for example, with financial or health data tied to my identity anyway, I'd take PGP with my own email provider over TLS to some tech company servers where it sits unencrypted any day.
>implying i fill out the subject box with anything meaningful 🤪
TY for informing me. Is there a better alternative to PGP even with the other downsides of email you listed?
Signal is probably best, since it has volume to hide in, and it's difficult/ impossible to screw up. Partly because it's centralized. Which is the problem with e.g mateix protocol - each node can configure thi gs a bit differently. Also why you should use the official app imo.
This is a decent walk through: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/basics/email-security/
But simple duckduckgoing can provide much more
https://5blockchains.com/posts/pgp-vs-signal/
https://ubos.tech/news/pgp-encryption-security-crisis-why-cryptography-needs-modern-alternatives/ (feels a bit clanker like - but info is legit)
I would say Signal is the best like mainstream normie friendly option but if you want the most reliable privacy imo your better off with Briar. It's less convenient for sure, but it requires no phone number, has no centralized servers, can route messages over TOR, Bluetooth, LAN, etc. Messages are end to end encrypted peer to peer. And even when stored on your device are encrypted. Downside is you need the other person to have an android there is no iOS app. But upside is it has a flatpak!