Comment 9 for bug 393645

mac_v's point is, I think, the most saliant here. It's one thing to remove the context menu items because they are confusing to new users, but the net result is that you've *entirely* removed any ability to sign/encrypt files graphically. We use this feature for non-technical users to sign SSH keys for access to SFTP servers - forcing them to use a terminal will be a significant usability regression in an already confusing process.

It would seem like the presence of valid GPG private keys would be sufficient to unhide these items (and that's a subtly different predicate to Kurt's "when ~/.gpg is present"), but if they are to remain hidden then there should be options somewhere else, perhaps in the Properties of a file (although that feels like an unnatural fit). Is there a simple tool for encrypting/signing files which could be installed by default and appear in the Open With submenu?