Techcrunch reports that Google will release a plugin for the Chrome browser that makes PGP-based encryption much easier for webmail users, such as Gmail users.

That’s cool! Mozilla, I hope you are right behind!

But the article leaves out the most important question: who will have access to the keys?

Chances are that Google will want to have access to the private PGP keys. Otherwise, it would be really hard to access your e-mail from your PC, your phone and your tablet. (I have that problem right now. When somebody sends me encrypted mail, I can only read it on my Mac.) In which case, the security/privacy benefits are much smaller than they could be.

On the other hand, if my e-mail went through my Personal Cloud or Indie Box, we’d get all the benefits, without having to share keys with anybody.