Privacy and passwords

[Robert Heller]

At Sat, 1 Mar 2008 20:08:18 +0000 "Davey Jones" <davidkjones03 at googlemail.com> wrote:

> 
> 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.

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 for mom, pop, the
kids and and their friends.

> 
> 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.

You wish...

> 
> 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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