Privacy concerns

It worries me that Singaporeans don't care for privacy. Is it down to a lack of awareness or they simply do not give a damn? The Internet is a nifty and convenient means of communication but almost everything that traverses it is in cleartext... emails, IM, logins, etc.
Encryption is a common method of providing privacy. However, for encryption to work... as the saying goes "you need two hands to clap" because it requires both the sender and recipient to install a piece of encryption software. I have written guides on encrypting emails and IM conversations. You can email me if you would like to obtain copies of both. Today, I will zoom in on IM encryption.
I was recently introduced to OTR. OTR stands for Off-The-Record messaging. Simply put... it is a plugin that allows your IM conversations to be encrypted. Mac OS X users can install Adium. Adium is a chat client that supports multiple IM protocols and comes bundled with OTR. Very nice as it saves you the hassle of having to download and install OTR. It is also very stable. Linux and Windows users can utilise Pidgin. Pidgin is one of a few IM clients that interface with OTR. The Sushiman has tested it on Linux and hasn't had problems with it. I did have reliability issues with Pidgin on Windows as I kept getting disconnected. I will try to find an alternative for Windows users... akan datang.