[OTR-users] Gaim OTR is only for' geeks', to complicated for regular users, suggestion.....

[Alex]

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:28:51 +1100
"Monica Barratt" <tronica at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Alex (and other OTR experts and users)
> 
> I am about to start recruiting people to research interviews conducted
> online and I want to offer encryption to participants so the
> conversation can be more confidential than otherwise. I have been
> able to set up Gaim/OTR and I now prefer it, however I know some
> participants won't be so willing, but may be prepared to download the
> free plugins from Secway/Simp which apply to whichever client they
> prefer (eg, MSN, ICQ) without the need to change to Gaim. I'm going
> to offer alternatives depending on their operating system and IM
> preferences.

The people can be as secure as they want to be. If they want to use a
less secure system, that is their choice. I think that the time spent
installing OTR is well worth the peace of mind.

> As mentioned by the OP, additional set-ups can just be too complex
> for some people which is a real shame... I'm not sure how it would be
> solved apart from educating people as to how important this is.

You are right, it is a shame that these people don't understand the
technology, but what is even more depressing is how nobody gives a
crap about their privacy online (or they are too naive).

> Alex, I'm interested in how that picture you linked to shows SimpPro
> to be less secure than OTR. It would be great if you could explain it
> to me (sorry, I am a bit new to all of this!).

The picture was not intended to show that OTR was more secure than
SimpLite. I quote:

 "If you really want many usrs to use encrypted messages we need
something really easy. Setting up proxy or using other clients is not
really a way to solve this."

I wanted him (readytogo2) to see that SimpLite DOES indeed use a
proxy just as OTR can. The screenshot helps him see the proxy in action.
What he doesn't realize is that all SimpLite does is set some
configuration settings (via registry or otherwise) to FORCE the program
(AIM, gaim, etc) use the proxy. I personally hate this "feature"
because you have one piece of software reconfiguring another, which can
lead to hell if there are bugs in either system. It is much better to
let the software configure itself (by having the user manually enter
the proxy information in) so you can isolate issues.

-- 
Alex