In 2001 or so I considered entering into an encrypted email correspondence with my brother, for fun. I quickly gave up on the idea because I realized that I didn’t trust that my computer or my brother’s computer didn’t already have spyware of some kind, I didn’t trust the integrity of any encryption/decryption tools that existed, didn’t trust myself not to lose the passwords or leave them lying around, and didn’t trust that some day I wouldn’t just stupidly leave my laptop somewhere with the password entered. Etc., etc. It was obvious that actually having even one meaningfully secret conversation would actually require involved and somewhat ridiculous lifestyle changes.

Having thought this through long ago, I have never understood why people behave as though a chat client or browser that they download from the open internet would be meaningfully secure.