[OTR-users] Pidgin OTR, Purple Plugin Pack and Privacy (Ian Goldberg)

[Peter Lawler]

On Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:49:27 -0500, Ian Goldberg wrote:

> I'm a little unclear on what exactly "Last Seen" does.  From the sounds
> of it, it logs the last time your buddies were advertising that they are
> online?  Or the last time you sent them an IM?  Or the last time you
> received one from them?

>From the Plugin description:
'Logs the time of a last received message, what they said, when they
logged in, and when they logged out, for buddies on your buddy list.'

This hooks in before OTR in such a way that disabling logging of a buddy
within OTR does not stop LastSeen from recording what the buddy last
said. I believe (without being knee deep in code right now) that this is
a limitation of the privacy subsystem in Pidgin.

>> 1. I recommend OTR users ensure that they do NOT use LastSeen for now.
> 
> This depends on what you're concerned about, I guess.  Many people just
> don't want the *contents* of their communications logged.
As LastSeen records 'what they (last) said', it's a log. Albeit a very
short and transient one, a user on a shared system with greater system
privs than the OTR operator may be able to collect LastSeen logs and
assemble a greater log of what one's Buddy has said to you.

Regards,

Pete.