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Henry Bremridge wrote:
FWIW, I have a bug bear about companies (ie banks, insurance companies and the like) requiring me to use their webmail if I want to receive information, download statements or even communicate with them. I suppose my biggest bugbear is that if I want to keep a copy of thecorrespondence I have to print it out.I accept that companies have significant costs dispatching information securely to consumers, and also that companies (councils) cannot afford to educate consumers about digital signatures, encryption and the like. I was therefore really happy when I discovered that The Financial Ombudsman Service appears to use a product called "PGP Universal Gateway Email" that overcomes these problems http://www.pgp.com/products/universal_gateway_email/index.html This works as follows: - The FOS sends an email - The recipient gets an email stating "we have sent you an email that is encrypted as it contains confidential information. To access the contents please log on to the webmail service at http:// .... - When you log on there is the normal headache about entering a username, confirm that the email address confirms to you and setting a password. At that point a screen appears that states "Do you want to use your own openPGP or smime key, if so please upload it here. If not then then we will communicate with you in the normal way via this web based email system" - If you upload your key to their server then all future emails are sent directly to you normal email account, appropriately encrypted and signed. No webmail. If you don't upload the key or the key does not match the email address etc then all emails are sent via the webmail interface. Couple of final points: - Pricing appears to be $76/user/year http://www.scmagazineus.com/PGP-Universal-Gateway-Email-28/Review/2401/ - Lawyers also appear to be using it http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/browne-jacobson-selects-pgp-universaltm-gateway-email-to-protect-sensitive-client-communications-67188482.html
So they're trying to charge your for a free service?Surely you should just be able to give your public key to the sender and they encrypt and send it to you? Why let someone else do that for you- stupidity? Is it just me or is computing a real surprise to most people with computers?
Tom te tom te tom -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html