Re: [briar-devel] assorted UI comments (and no tor on battery)

[Wojciech S. C. <oh...@fa...>]

On Sun, 28 Apr 2019 23:46:52 +0200
Julian Fagir <gn...@to...> wrote:

[citations in order of importance, excuse me Julian.
Mind also, that I am not a dev team member and opinions are mine.]

> what the idea for briar is?

To my understanding, Briar is an attempt to make a strong privacy tool
for people who really needs it. In edge cases for people who can get killed
just for not obeying sharia laws and/or for being against authoritarian
governments.  

> being a tool for specialists rather than having a broader user base.

People who will need Briar the most either will become 'specialists'
or perish. Weakening Briar's leveled security in hope it might widen
 'audience' would be right against the goal of being the working shield.

Not to mention that no 'broad user base' can be expected nowadays
for software that needs a configuration other than tap OK on 'give
me full access to your phone'. See Signal adoption rates.


> Having a password is one very big deal in the direction of [xxxxx] 

A properly used password is the only real, working and strong obstacle
to the BigGov exercising its ever widening powers. Thats why we now
see - orchestrated across the industry and around the globe - action
against passwords. All 'Biometrics' they push are akin to piggy-bank lock.
You can access it with a bent pin or 1-2-3 'code'.   You can unlock your
phone, even 'i'-one, rubbing it with one of 5 to 11 master fingerprints.
[see: arxiv.org/abs/1705.07386]. "Face id" protects your smartphone
right until an adversary points his at your face.

Hope this helps,

-- 
Wojciech S. Czarnecki
 << ^oo^ >> OHIR-RIPE