# Why encrypted email remains unsafe, according to the article

DevFeed: [Why encrypted email remains unsafe, according to the article](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/stop-using-encrypted-email-29173.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.latacora.com/blog/2020/02/19/stop-using-encrypted-email/>)

Published: 2020-02-19T18:50:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Latacora](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/latacora.md>)

Topics: [email](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/email.md>), [Encryption](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/encryption.md>), [Cryptography](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cryptography.md>), [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>), [Internet](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/internet.md>)

Tags: [cryptography](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cryptography.md>), [email](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/email.md>), [encryption](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/encryption.md>), [internet](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/internet.md>), [messages](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/messages.md>), [pgp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pgp.md>), [privacy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/privacy.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [signal](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/signal.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that encrypted email remains unsafe even if flaws in current tools such as PGP are fixed. It attributes the problem to email's plaintext-oriented foundations and the likelihood of unencrypted replies, and advises against sending messages that require serious security over email.

## Source excerpt

Email is unsafe and cannot be made safe. The tools we have today to encrypt email are badly flawed. Even if those flaws were fixed, email would remain unsafe. Its problems cannot plausibly be mitigated. Avoid encrypted email. Technologists hate this argument. Few of them specialize in cryptography or privacy, but all of them are interested in it, and many of them tinker with encrypted email tools. Most email encryption on the Internet is performative, done as a status signal or show of solidarity. Ordinary people don't exchange email messages that any powerful adversary would bother to read, and for those people, encrypted email is LARP security. It doesn't matter whether or not these emails are safe, which is why they're encrypted so shoddily.