Privacy and passwords for Gnucash (Davey Jones)

[J. Alex Aycinena]

>
> Message: 7
> Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 20:05:44 +0000
> From: "Davey Jones" <davidkjones03 at googlemail.com>
> Subject: Privacy and passwords for Gnucash
> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Message-ID:
>        <ed52dc00803011205m7e909496y933fffe5e984fa49 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> 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?
>
>
You would solve your problem by using the user password features of the OS,
a step that would require no work from the developers. Why don't you? Even in
a household situation you should have seperate accounts and passwords for
each family member and, if you want, you can set up a guest account. Don't
you have any other data you would like to control access to besides Gnucash's
data? Why is that such a burden?