That the NSA said GPG was gsme over for mass collection in the Snowden lesks should be a reason for everyone to try to improve its UI.

That the NSA cracked, backdoored, or intercepted most providers people trusted but couldnt beat GPG isnt an argument for GPG being secure? I think it's quite an endorsement for GPG given most people's adversaries will be weaker than NSA.

1) I don't take the snowden leaks as gospel, sorry. 2) Even if i did, "most peoples adversary" is a meaningless phrase at this point, and also used quite often as a rhetorical feint to take down someones arg. And given the profound unification of the security state across seemingly all lines, its also dead wrong. Technically everyones adversary is the NSA, as long as data is shared surreptiously and , more and more, openly and legally between TLA's, state, and local LEAs. 3) GPG may be an excellent tool, the first time you use it, but if you transmit anything encrypted you are automatically targeted, another point directly from the snowden docs, no? And since virtually no one is going to use one time devices and farraday cages unless your model of communication is "I just have to get this one message out, then I'm good" its worse than useless, given that it will only make you more of a target.

"1) I don't take the snowden leaks as gospel, sorry. "

Don't take them as gospel. That's faith. Review the evidence they're true from U.S. governments' reaction to them to what similar malware was found by third parties. Once evidence is in, then you have reason to believe them and then in stuff such as GPG by extension. And the leaks didn't say anything about faraday cages. Just that they had to rely on the extremely-limited resources of TAO... such as targeted attacks on specific sites/configurations/endpoints... if the target used something strong.

the idea that "evidence" comes from the govts reaction is just weak, its just a terrible argument. Extrapolating from that is also largely a mistake. Any number of possible interpretations of the docs themselves and the responses by the state could and have been made, each of which could point to mutually exclusive conclusions for toosl mentioned in the docs. This isn't a particularly novel argument (my arg, I mean) either. I wasn't pulling the faraday cages from the docs themselves, as well, I was positing that as an extreme example of data security.

Your comment is its own best response to itself.

except that its ....not? You don't have to treat the snowden leaks as gospel, you know that right?

Even the government stopped denying their truth, especially after the drip feed of info caught them in baldface lies on several occasions. Also, if the info wasn't genuine, why would they be so upset and calling Snowden a "traitor" etc?

Additionally, this wasn't even the first time any of us had heard about this sort of thing. Ever heard of Room 641A? The Snowden leaks aren't exactly implausible or unprecedented.

I don't know if you are genuinely unsure of their veracity or just making a rhetorical point, but it's not a point of contention in any serious debate forum I know of, even among intelligence community sympathizers.