Until that moment, I thought my boss was a finicky woman. Privacy, discretion, confidentiality, and prudence are hallmarks of civilization. I've heard police say that encryption should be outlawed because criminals use it to avoid detection. Many governments, corporations, and law enforcement agencies use encryption to hide their operations. Yes, a few criminals also use encryption.
Criminals are more likely to use cars, gloves, and ski-masks to evade capture.
It gives average law abiding citizens a few of the privacy rights which governments and corporations insist that they need for themselves. Think of these keys as computer counterparts of the keys in your pocket. You give this second key to your correspondents. However, it becomes very clear when you play with PGP for a while. I have no way of knowing.