Hunting The Muse

Privacy for OS X

I ran across a couple of articles talking about how emails are technically less private than sending postcards, and considerably more dangerous. That plus paranoia about all the post 9/11 privacy invasions has me thinking a bit more about protecting my own privacy. Obviously I don't seem to care a ton about privacy given that I have this here weblog, but you know. There's that baked bean foot fetish I have that I don't want anyone to know about. So, I figured out how to get encryption going on my Mac.

First I went to MacGPG's page and downloaded GNU Privacy Guard for Mac OS X 10.2.x (which is currently at version 1.2.1r2). I followed the directions in the ReadMe and verified the signature of the *.dmg file to match the signature posted on the website. Then I clicked on the GnuPG.mpkg package to install the software. The Basic Install is fine.

I also reviewed the optional instructions for IDEA encryption.

I installed GPGKeys off of the same page.

I installed GPGPreferences off of the same page. I initially wasn't sure because it referred to requiring 1.07 when I had 1.2.1 installed, but it looks like it worked fine. I now have a GPG Preferences Pane. It says my compatibility settings are "Custom".

I installed GPGDropThing and GPGFileTool from the same page.

Finally, I found the GPGMail Plugin for Apple's Mail program here and installed the extension.

Now I'm all set. There are a couple of extra icons I can put in my Mail icon bar, and there are also a couple of extra ones at the top of my Message windows as well. Now if I can find some people to also install the software, I can send encrypted email to them and no one else will be able to read the emails. Hooray.

And I just sent my first signed email to Damon, with my public key appended, so he has some homework.

Finally, here's my public key:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (Darwin)
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=Werj
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Posted by Curt at March 10, 2003 02:58 AM