Comment by jwr
3 years ago
I wrote something like this, but for photos. I was tired of not being able to share photo albums with my family and friends.
And then I realized that there is a certain group of people who really need a private photo-sharing service without any oversight, and that not only do I want nothing to do with that despicable group, I don't ever want to realize that I helped them in any way.
So I decided to never release the code and never make it available.
Counterpoint: the bad people are already doing bad things. There is already plenty of secure communication technology, it’s just not super convenient. The highly motivated weirdos don’t mind that though.
There is a much larger group of people (parents) who need a secure and convenient way to share photos. They are not as driven as the perverts, so they need all the support and user-friendliness that we can provide.
We should build the tools that help the parents protect their kids, and let law enforcement deal with the other group.
If you discovered a new way to make a secure locking cabinet, and then found out that bad people would lock bad things in the cabinet, you’d stop working on the cabinet?
OK then, that’s entirely your choice. Just don’t forget you started working on this cabinet for your own legitimate use, and there are many more people who share your same legitimate problem, but who can’t write software, and they will be SOL.