Re: Privacy

[Charles Goodwin <charlie xwt org>]

On Tue, 2004-03-16 at 15:28, Linas Vepstas wrote:
> Yes, this was discussed to death on the gnucash mailing lists. 
> -- encryption is not enough if your kid can still delete your data files.
>    The point is really access control, not encryption per se.
> -- one should stick to OS-provided security mechanisms for many good reasons

As you imply, this is the job of the OS and not of the application.

> I was hoping to encourage a gnome-standardized, gnome-automated way 
> of providing some apps with ability to prompt user for a passwd, and
> then do the equivalent of 
> "xhost +; su - root; useradd otheruser; su - otheruser; export DISPLAY=:0; start_my_gnomeapp;" 
> 
> Yes, I could hack something up here; it would be a hack. Or I could
> write it up in the docs and tell everyone to RTFM.  A gnome-generic,
> desktop-seal-of-approval way of handling this would be nicer.

I would argue this should be an FAQ/Howto entry.

And besides, if somebody was that concerned about privacy they simply
would log out when they're finished and keep that user account private
and give the (presumably) family members their own user accounts.

Creating yet another user really won't make the accounts more secure. 
Just more obscurely located.  I thought only MS practiced security
through obscurity? ;)
-- 
- Charlie

Charles Goodwin <charlie xwt org>
Online @ http://www.charlietech.com