Privacy and passwords

[Davey Jones]

> >J. Alex Aycinena alex.aycinena at gmail.com wrote
> >Even in
> >a household situation you should have seperate accounts and passwords for
> >each family member

> >On Sunday 02 March 2008 21:00:43 Robert Heller wrote:
> >
> > This is fact a 'wrong thing to do' and only happens because people
> > became 'used' to the non-existent security of MacOS Classic and Win
> > 3.11/Win 9X.  With Win2K, WinXP, WinVista, Linux, and MacOSX, there
> > really is NO reason to have separate login accounts

>>At Mon, 3 Mar 2008 23:33:59 +0000 "Keith A. Milner" <kamilner at
superlative.org> wrote:
> >If someone cannot even do something as simple as set up different login
> >accounts for their sensitive data then they haven't got a clue about security
> >and "the real world".

> >Andrew Sackville-West andrew at swclan.homelinux.org Sun Mar 2 15:20:41 EST 2008
> >As a fringe developer on this project, I don't give a rat's ass whether
> >gnucash becomes mainstream or not.


My point was that pointing out what people "should" be doing or what
is "the wrong way" to use your computer isn't very helpful when in the
real world most people don't have separate accounts for each user.
That's a simple fact, the fact that you don't agree with it doesn't
change that. The majority of home users trade a certain amount of
security for convenience, and not having to log off and log on again
within in the confines of your own home is one of those conveniences.

Again, I know a simple password would not provide a high degree of
security, but it *would* be enough to deter most casual passers by,
including family members. I keep my personal diary in a drawer in my
house with a simple lock. It could easily be picked with just a
hairpin, but I know that that this minimal amount of security make a
huge difference compared to me leaving it out on the desk where
curiosity may well prove too tempting for anyone who walks by.

 If you were concerned about it providing people with a false sense of
security, you could put a warning on the option stating that it was a
simply a minor deterrent and would not stop someone who was determined
to access your data. This approach is used in several other apps.

In any case, it is clear that the developers have their own priorities
(fair enough, it's your project after all), and are aiming Gnucash at
users who are have the same amount of technical knowledge as they do.
So I guess I'll haul my "lazy" and "clueless" ass back to Quicken and
leave you guys to play with your toys the way you want to.

Peace.