It definitely helps, but if you're trying to keep up with the latest security, you'd be susceptible to Logjam (due to DHE-supporting ciphers in the default TLS 1.2 list).
There's the Mozilla SSL Configuration Generator which helps with the madness, but they still aren't keeping up with the latest recommendations.
This is a much more accurate than the old "Locks keep honest people honest" saying.
If you consider yourself an honest person, ask yourself how many times you've tried to open doors to random houses as you walk down the street. If you found it unlocked, do you rob the place?
If you need a lock to keep you honest, you may want to reevaluate your values.
The phrase is rooted in a very old memeplex, the part where religious morality and sociopathy overlap. Most ideas revolving around the concept of "putting the fear of God into someone" aren't actually for regular people with empathy. They're for sociopaths. It seems that sociopaths used to be seen as just completely normal people, undifferentiable from everyone else—and much of "morality" is actually an attempt to create extrinsic incentive systems to replace the thing that sociopaths lack, so they can seemingly function normally.
That's all to say, by analogy: locks are to keep honest-acting sociopathic opportunists honest-acting.
Right, you're exactly right, but you also seem to know a bit about sociopaths, and so it surprises me that you are implying that we don't see sociopaths as normal people these days. I've had very personal run-ins with real, genuine sociopaths in my life, and most people just have no idea that there are these people just totally walking around being treated like normal human beings. Sociopaths are not human beings, I say, because what is humanity but our empathy? And sociopaths do not have it, ergo...
While the ideal flow/funnel is to go from persuasive copy to signup in a single visit, I've often found myself going back to a site/service multiple times over the course of months before actually signing up.
It's probably part of the multiple touch points marketing idea. You may really like a service, but have to wait until you actually come across the problem the service is solving before committing to the buy.
The point being, I think it makes sense to have a sign-up button on your landing page (for return visits) AND in your copy (for first time visitors).
I personally am very turned off by the big "Sign Up" buttons on front pages. For whatever reason it always makes me feel like I'm looking at an obnoxious panhandler who's holding a glossy sign made at Kinkos. Just put a small login/username toggle widget at the top of the page.
EFF is great and I would encourage anyone to donate/join. If you get a chance to attend, they frequently speak at the DefCon conference in Las Vegas, NV (http://www.defcon.org) and field digital rights questions.
They also produce useful info for anyone concerned with digital privacy like the "Surveillance Self-Defense Project". If nothing else, it's gives some perspective on the complicated legal state of data security and communications.
I hear this reasoning all the time -- that your desire to keep X private is null and void because some fringe Y case would expose you. The world isn't black and white and privacy isn't binary.
There are already privacy protections for doctor/patient and attorney/client, so clearly a legal precedent has been set in those cases -- why not others?
The comic book example, just because the source knows who you are doesn't mean it's for them to plaster your picture up on every internet site and telephone pole.
There's the Mozilla SSL Configuration Generator which helps with the madness, but they still aren't keeping up with the latest recommendations.