[OTR-dev] Clever logging for weechat_otr plugin (+ log management discussion)

Paul Wouters paul at cypherpunks.ca
Thu Mar 14 11:17:54 EDT 2013


On Thu, 14 Mar 2013, "Daniel ".koolfy" Faucon" wrote:

>> For instance, I use full disk encryption, so my logs are perfectly
>> safe. And I prefer having my logs because I often need to look up
>> things from my logs.
>
> From Quinn Norton's article about the Aaron Swartz prosecution:

> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/13/03/life-inside-the-aaron-swartz-investigation/273654/
>
> Encryption doesn't take away the responsibility of logging. In some
> contexts, you might be forced to "cooperate" legally or violently.
>
> Strange game, the only winning move is not to log :)

Listen,

There is nothing I can do to help you when your government can coerce
you with torture or financial ruin. You will talk regardless what's
encrypted on your hard disk. In fact, I'm sure they will be very
helpful and _write_ the log entries they want admitted from you.

OTR is to protect my communications. It is not there to prevent me from
having coversations with anyone. I need conversastion logs. In fact,
I've used what at the time seemed volatile unimportant log messages
for a court case. If you write opensource software that does not have
a logging capability, you'll find people rewriting your software.

If you don't talk to people who might log conversations, good luck
expanding that policy to have any communication. Like only mailing
people using encrypted email. Currently, the tools are just not
feasable for such policies. And if you insist, you'll end up
isolated and unable to talk to most people. What more could a hostile
government want from a dissident?

Paul



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