Friday, October 26, 2012

SafeGmail compared to PGP Encryption


Someone needs to watch out as if sites like Lifehacker keep explaining complex things like, what PGP Encryption is, in simple terms, pretty soon all IT staff are going to be out of job! Well SafeGmail Is A Simple Way To Encrypt Messages In Gmail isn't 100% the same concept, with PGP you have to get a key (or answer to the question) to them, they won't just 'know it' because you both train on the same sports ground or have some other commonality!

But I like the idea of the Chrome Extension and can see how the paranoid would love it.

Although I don't really see myself using it, although explaining why might be a little beyond this post and people should ask me in conversation.

But as food for thought, it's related to how each of us encode EVERY message we write and the recipient decodes EVERY message they receive (electronic or hand written). For example, if I write a message to person A, I will put it in words that person A will understand. When person B receives a message from me, person B will read it knowing what I mean by the type of language I would normally use. Or at least I hope they would, otherwise there is a misinterpretation and misunderstanding.

A great example I heard while on a PMP course, the instructor asked us to consider the following famous phrase.

"I didn't say you stole the money".

Read it out loud emphasising the word "I". And out loud again, emphasising the word "didn't". And out loud again emphasising each of the other words individually (except "the"). You've just decoded the message 6 times, each giving it a different meaning...

Anyway, SafeGmail is pretty good privacy (sorry, couldn't resist), but not quite Symantec PGP Encryption... Anyway, the article amused me to the extent I thought was worth sharing.

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