On Monday, Facebook announced a new experimental feature that, if enabled, will encrypt every email notification they send to you. As Leo Mirani writes at Quartz:
The new update will be of use only to the small minority of people who use encrypted email, a cumbersome system that puts off many non-technical users. But increased exposure to PGP keys via Facebook may help bring it ever so slightly more into the mainstream.
It's a small announcement, aimed at geeks, but has the potential to introduce end-to-end encryption to the masses. It's also part of a larger trends towards consumer-facing encrypted email. Last year, both Google and Yahoo announced end-to-end encryption tools for their webmail services.
- Before you begin, check out this introduction to Public Key Cryptography and PGP from the EFF. It'll help you wrap your head around this stuff.
- I use Mailvelope, a browser plug-in for Chrome and Firefox that helps manage encryption keys and use them with webmail clients (like Gmail and Hotmail).
- Once you have your encryption keys, you can enable Facebook's encrypted notifications and add your keys here