newbie question about identities

Atom 'Smasher' atom-gpg at suspicious.org
Thu Oct 9 10:38:01 CEST 2003


> > i guess i'm trying to clarify whether the problem is in the
> > implementation, the documentation, or just my understanding of it... it
> > seems like the handbook is advocating something that's not quite right,
> > and i'm trying to figure out which way(s) are right. i'm also trying to
> > verify that the documentation is either incorrect or misleading.
>
> The only thing incorrect is how you're trying to use it but not use it.
>
> "Hey... I want to do things in a really backasswards way, but the
> documentation won't tell me how to do it. The documentation must be
> incorrect or misleading!"
========================================

the documentation says:
	Additional user IDs are useful when you need multiple identities.
	For example, you may have an identity for your job and an identity
	for your work as a political activist.
http://www.gnupg.org/gph/en/manual.html#AEN282

that *IMPLIES* that multiple identities that [socially] conflict with each
other can share the same key. as i've confirmed, that is not a good idea.

since i have some IDs which are socially incompatible with other IDs, i
have generated a key-pair for each identity, although the handbook doesn't
mention that solution. problem solved.

at this point, i'd assert that the documentation is flawed. there should
be EXPLICIT mention of the fact that multiple IDs using the same key-pair
will leave those multiple IDs visible to each other... if one has multiple
IDs that should not leave a trail to each other (politician and anarchist,
member of a church and a gay rights group, etc), then each ID must have
it's own key pair. THE HANDBOOK DOES *NOT* MAKE THIS CLEAR!!


	...atom

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