Who uses OpenPGP, and why.
OpenPGP works the same way for everyone — content confidentiality and authenticity through public-key cryptography — but the workflow around it changes a lot by audience. A journalist protecting a source has different needs from a developer signing commits or an activist evaluating their threat model. These pages map PGPony to the specific work each group does.
PGP for journalists
Encrypted tip lines, signed correspondence, archival ciphertext.
PGP for developers
Signed commits, signed releases, the GitHub Verified badge.
PGP for open-source maintainers
Signed releases, key rotation, transitions, web of trust.
PGP for activists
What it protects, what it doesn't. Honest threat assessment.
How to read these pages.
Each persona page has the same shape: a short framing of the work, a paired "what OpenPGP gives you here" / "what it doesn't" assessment (this is the honest part — OpenPGP doesn't do everything), a concrete workflow that links out to the how-to guides for the mechanics, and a "is this right for me" decision matrix.
The capability/limitation panels matter. OpenPGP has real weaknesses — no metadata protection, no forward secrecy, non-repudiable signatures, no anonymity — and these are important to know before betting on it for a sensitive workflow. The activist page is deliberately the most cautious about this; the developer page is the most confident.
Related material.
Common questions.
Why a "for" section?
OpenPGP is used by different groups for different reasons. A journalist protecting a source has different needs from a developer signing commits or an activist evaluating threat models. These pages address those specific workflows rather than treating "PGP" as one undifferentiated thing.
Is OpenPGP right for my use case?
Depends on what you're trying to protect. OpenPGP is strong at content confidentiality and authenticity for asynchronous messages and files. It is weak at metadata protection, forward secrecy, and real-time chat. Each persona page makes the honest assessment for that workflow.
Which page should I read first?
Pick the one closest to your situation. If none fits, the homepage and the compare section cover general capability and tool selection — the persona pages are for people who know they want OpenPGP and want to see how it applies to their work.
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