Just a quick thought.

I was talking about encrypted e-mail today and I wonder if it could be a selling point for web applications.

The idea:

Pick a web-service, doesn’t matter if it’s a project management-tool, an open-source code repo, a pizza delivery service or a pornographic website. The point is that you often (possibly always, given the disadvantages of openID) still sign up with an email address. You get a confirmation mail, click the link, and they send you email-notificatitons from then on. Yadayada.

What if they sent out encrypted emails?

Doesn’t matter if it’s PGP/GPG or S/MIME or something else. I think some people would appreciate it. It would also send a positive message that the company cares about these things.

And it would help spread the technology.