Privacy and passwords

Davey Jones davidkjones03 at googlemail.com
Sat Mar 1 15:08:18 EST 2008


Having done a search of the archives, I'm still not clear why there is
is such a huge philosophical objection from the devs to implementing a
simple password feature for Gnucash.

The alternatives mentioned by the devs, such as using pgp, are not
particularly practical or user friendly for the majority of
non-technical lay users. Even suggestions to use a separate OS user
account for each person who uses the computer does not fit in with the
real world usage where mom, pop, the kids and and their friends all
use the same OS account on the computer.

All most people want is a simple privacy feature that asks for a
password on startup to open the data file. This would not need to be a
complex uncrackable crytpotgraphic subroutine - just something simple
that will discourage casual nosy parkers. Most people seeing the
gnucash icon on the desktop and clicking it out of curiosity would see
the request for a password and not go any further.

Sure, it wouldn't discourage any 1337 hackers, but for stopping your
spouse or a guest from casually browsing through your personal
financial records, this would be an more than sufficient. For Gnucash
to become a mainstream alternative to Quicken and Microsoft Money,
this feature is vital.

So come on, devs. Why not?


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