Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 17:52:21 -0600 From: Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> To: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: good replacement for open office Message-ID: <20071005235221.GG56296@demeter.hydra> In-Reply-To: <4707F565.9090907@charter.net> References: <1191546543.61533.202.camel@pinot.fmjassoc.com> <470719CF.7030502@charter.net> <4707205D.6090108@pacific.net.sg> <47079D01.7000502@charter.net> <20071006170617.Y43849@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <20071005192207.GC56296@demeter.hydra> <4707F565.9090907@charter.net>
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On Sat, Oct 06, 2007 at 03:51:49PM -0500, icantthinkofone wrote: > Chad Perrin wrote: > >On Sat, Oct 06, 2007 at 05:07:45PM +0200, Wojciech Puchar wrote: > > > >>nobody intelligent (or completely not caring about it) use any of big > >>public mail/news/etc services. > >> > > > >There are two separate concerns here. > > > > 1. General Privacy: If you're concerned with your documents and > > communications being collected, indexed, and scanned for patterns > > and > > flagged terms along with billions of other documents and > > communications, without any specific attention to yours in > > particular, > > you're right -- don't use "public", web-based services. > > > > 2. Specific Privacy: If you're concerned with someone cracking > > security > > on your account, targeting your communications for electronic > > eavesdropping, and similarly making use of the "public" nature of a > > service like that for nefarious intent, you're probably among the > > millions of computer users who are carefully locking the front door > > while leaving the bay windows and garage door wide open. Are you > > using > > public key encryption systems like OpenPGP to secure your email? > > Are > > you encrypting word processor documents when you send email? Are > > you > > using a text-based mail user agent instead of reading XHTML "rich" > > emails in a GUI mail client? Are you anonymizing communications via > > the Tor network? What exactly are you doing to avoid leaving > > yourself > > at least as wide open with plain text transmission of data as you > > would > > be with a web-based, SSL-encrypted mail service? You're probably > > even > > transmitting login data to a web server in clear text. > > > >Now . . . I know this is the freebsd-questions mailing list, and many > >of > >you are running mail servers locally, and otherwise mitigating these > >risks. On the other hand, simply telling people that they'll be safer > >avoiding web-based services without explaining that this is only true > >if > >they also pay significant attention to securing their other > >communication > >and collaboration tools might be considered dishonest, or at least > >irresponsible. > > > But then you are assuming Google, as well as the others, are willing to > lose public trust by allowing those things to happen and running an > insecure system. It would also be assuming an in-house group could > provide better security than Google and the others. No . . . I'm assuming that I have zero control over whether Google et al. are "willing to lose public trust by allowing those things to happen", et cetera. I'm not assuming any decisions on their part -- only that I'm not a party to those decisions (and maybe, just a little bit, that corporations like Google play by different rules that may require them to in some ways prove less trustworthy, such as the fact that it takes a warrant to search *my* computer, but only a subpoena to search Google's). -- CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ] Dr. Ron Paul: "Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons."
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