[liberationtech] Here Come the Encryption Apps

[Nathan of Guardian]

On 03/10/2013 05:15 PM, Ralph Holz wrote:
> In the sentence you quote, he seems to be taking the POV of end-users,
> who are unlikely to be able to deal with things such as GnuPG. Which he
> cites in exactly that sentence. I agree with him here - GPG is quite
> intimidating to the uninitiated.

I love GnuPG, but it is about as far from the state of the art in
usable, modern open-source security software, as you can get. It is a
low blow to point to that as a representation of "well you can go
open-source <snicker, snicker>, or you can use this amazing, shiny
polished product over here!".

> The rest of the article is, however, very much in favour of open source
> as it allows him to have a look at the code, which he seems to
> appreciate very much.

Yes, obviously, his one statement about "scrounging with messy
open-source" was completely confusing because he indicates that both
Crypto.cat and Redphone are easy to use.

Most of the time I just scan articles like this and don't give them
second thought. It just gave me pause when I saw that it was somehow
attached to a course at a well respected university, and felt it was a
bit lazy in its discourse.

+n