Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
#2Virtru dev here!
Virtru allows users to easily send encrypted email from their existing email address. It is super easy to use and currently works in your browser and on your phone.
We are launching our public beta program today and would love feedback from the community. Several of the Virtru team members will be monitoring this thread to respond to feedback and questions.
EDIT: Virtru team members: DHowitzer (CTO), ravenac95, znelson, jgilpin
Re: Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
#3How can Virtru help email users who are concerned with government surveillance activities that have been revealed in the last year?
Re: Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
#4So, can I keep the keys myself instead of storing them in the cloud? Or do I have to trust Virtru instead of google or some other company that they don't buckle when someone comes knocking for the keys?
Based on the feature list, I can't have the keyserver on my own server. I have to trust Virtru. This is no different than sending the text in plain IMO.
Re: Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
#5[deleted]
Re: Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
#6How can Virtru help email users who are concerned with government surveillance activities that have been revealed in the last year?
Encryption has been used in the past to keep emails secure from surveillance(PGP), but it has always been cumbersome to setup and use on both ends. Virtru's focus has been to make powerful encryption available to everyone by making it easy to use and with the services you and those you communicated with already use. Right now we have Chrome/Firefox support as well as an iPhone app...but many other clients soon.
Re: Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
#7How can Virtru help email users who are concerned with government surveillance activities that have been revealed in the last year?
Hey, that's a great question. We've put a lot of time and effort into thinking about this and have been working with some key people in the industry who have a lot of experience in this area.
We've comprehensively addressed this issue on our blog. Here's the direct link: https://blog.virtru.com/faq-on-government-surveillance/
Let us know what you think.
Re: Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
#8How can Virtru help email users who are concerned with government surveillance activities that have been revealed in the last year?
Encryption has been used in the past to keep emails secure from surveillance(PGP), but it has always been cumbersome to setup and use on both ends. Virtru's focus has been to make powerful encryption available to everyone by making it easy to use and with the services you and those you communicated with already use. Right now we have Chrome/Firefox support as well as an iPhone app...but many other clients soon.
PGP - one can store the keys on one's own server. In Virturo, it appears it has to be on Virutro servers. So hypothetically, we could have a Lavabit moment.
Re: Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
#9So, can I keep the keys myself instead of storing them in the cloud? Or do I have to trust Virtru instead of google or some other company that they don't buckle when someone comes knocking for the keys? Based on the feature list, I can't have the keyserver on my own server. I have to trust Virtru. This is no different than sending the text in plain IMO.
The website does actually say advanced users can run their own keystore, but this does seem like the weak point in the service in general.
Re: Show HN: Easily send encrypted email from your existing email
#10So, can I keep the keys myself instead of storing them in the cloud? Or do I have to trust Virtru instead of google or some other company that they don't buckle when someone comes knocking for the keys? Based on the feature list, I can't have the keyserver on my own server. I have to trust Virtru. This is no different than sending the text in plain IMO.
Nope.
> However, you’re entrusting us to help you maintain your privacy; you should know how we will respond if the government asks us for access to your encryption keys. The government would need those keys if it wanted to read any encrypted files it does obtain. Without them, the files are useless.
> We won’t provide your keys to anyone without your consent — unless we are ordered to divulge them by a judge with jurisdiction over us. If we are ordered to divulge them, we will fight for you to have notice and an opportunity to object.
So I guess I'll keep waiting for a DarkMail client.