Why "trouble"?

[Mark H. Wood]

Why is it a problem that most people don't see value in signing and
encryption?

My answer is a selfish one:  because I do, and I want to be able to
have the benefit of those techniques in dealing with others.

I want to be able to (for example) exchange information with my doctor
by email.  He has to deal with privacy laws.  Theoretically, encrypted
email could satisfy that requirement (and mine too).  (No, I haven't
tried to apply HIPAA to OpenPGP.  But it's worth thinking about.)

I want to no longer have to fiddle with closed email systems that
require me to go to my bank's website to exchange written messages
with my banker.

I want to see those techniques replace the basketful of "enhanced"
authentication methods I have to deal with at various vendors' sites.
Anybody with a little time can look up my mother's maiden name, or any
of a dozen other things that some people think are soooo secret.  I
have little if any confidence in what they are doing; I'd rather
exchange certificates and keep my credentialling secrets entirely off
the 'net.

Like the guy with the first telephone, I need for lots of other people
to adopt the same technology in order to make it an everyday tool for
me rather than an expensive plaything.

I think that all this goes a lot deeper than technology.  I think that
we don't do enough to make thinking about trust and privacy part of
the normal way we interact.  Children are taught to use locks and
sealed envelopes, but they are not taught to generalize these acts.

-- 
Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer   mwood at IUPUI.Edu
Asking whether markets are efficient is like asking whether people are smart.
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