160 - Review of Mailvelope add on for Google Chrome Browser

160 - Review of Mailvelope add on for Google Chrome Browser

Jan29.2015

Today I downloaded the Mailvelope add-on for Google Chrome Browser,
on a desktop pc computer.

It is seemingly the most user friendly way to encrypt email text
via PGP or GPG standards when using webmail. The other handy feature is
the ability to (cryptographically) sign a message if you don't need to
encrypt your message text.


Importing an existing key = easy
Creating a new key = easy
Other key management options = easy
set up webmail provider = medium difficult (but this is a one time event only).

Tip 1. (a tip which helped me):
 sometimes the overlay screen is sticky in that it doesn't appear. I discovered
 the screen can be encouraged to appear by clicking on the browser Mailvelope
 toolbar button (upper right hand corner), and next click activated checkbox off
 and then back on again.  This made the overlay screen appear.

Tip 2. All work is done on-line.  You cannot sign or encrypt messages when
 you are offline.

Tip 3. An add-on is available for browser Firefox 38 to Firefox 45.

Assumption: Mailvelope probably works on smartphones using Firefox or GoogleChrome
 browsers made for smartphones.

(other GPG software to try out: gpg4usb,  OR [Thunderbird + GnuPG  + enigmail addon])