[Hackupy-discuss] Dovetail protester communications system

[Eleanor Saitta]

On 2012.01.10 17.13, Shannon Lee wrote:
> What are the other projects?  This would be a great place to plug
> alternatives.

As I mentioned in my first email, Briar, http://briar.sourceforge.net.
Briar is a project to building a similar system, but from a coherent
security perspective.

> The users we're talking about are people who've decided to risk their
> lives and their freedom to a greater or lesser extent in pursuit of
> their goals.  If you asked the user "OK, do you want this ability,
> though insecure, or do you not want this ability," many of them will
> vote to accept the risk; the way they'll vote to accept the risk is by
> using the tech.  I know this because they *do* vote to accept the risk,
> over and over and over.

As a developer, intentionally putting those people at risk by not doing
your job right is unacceptable.  The same system can be built in a
secure manner, and if you build a system targeted for activists, you are
responsible for doing so.

Building a system which is aimed at activists in the west where people
mostly aren't being shot right now, only arrested and harassed and
having their possessions seized, and it'll be used in other countries
where people are being shot.  By popularizing it in places where people
aren't getting shot, you encourage its use everywhere else.

The users on the ground do not have the technical capability to evaluate
the security of the systems which are being offered to them; pretending
otherwise is a significant self-delusion.  By offering a system with
less security than the interactions it supports afford, you are
encouraging those users to make bad judgements about their personal
security.

E.

-- 
Ideas are my favorite toys.

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