PGP — Pretty Good Privacy

In 1991, Phil Zimmermann uploaded PGP to the internet. For free. For everyone.

For the first time, any person on earth could encrypt their communications with military-grade cryptography. Governments noticed. The US government opened a criminal investigation — exporting strong encryption was illegal.

The case dragged on for three years. Then it was dropped.

PGP survived. It became the foundation of encrypted email, digital signatures, and modern privacy tools. GPG — the open-source successor — powers encrypted communication to this day.

“If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy.” — Phil Zimmermann

Zimmermann didn’t just write code. He fought for the right to whisper.