← Back to context

Comment by aprentic

13 days ago

Yes and they had to lie to sell that option.

If they honestly informed customers about the tradeoff between security and convenience they'd certainly have far fewer customers. Instead they lead people to believe that they can get that convenience for free.

The obvious better choice is transparancy.

6 comments

aprentic

Reply
xp84  13 days ago

> tradeoff between security and convenience they'd certainly have far fewer customers

What? Most people, thinking through the tradeoff, would 100% not choose to be in charge of safeguarding their own key, because they're more worried about losing everything on their PC, than they are about going to jail. Because most people aren't planning on doing crime. Yes, I know people can be wrongly accused and stuff, but overall most people aren't thinking of that as their main worry.

  • aprentic  13 days ago

    That's exactly what I mean.

    If you tell people, "I'll take care of safeguarding your key for you," it sounds like you're just doing them a favor.

    It would be more honest to say, "I can hold on to a copy of your key and automatically unlock your data when we think you need it opened," but that would make it too obvious that they might do so without your permission.

    • TeMPOraL  13 days ago

      They're not doing them a favor. They're providing them a service.

      Trust is a fundamental aspect of how the world works. It's a feature, not a bug.

      Consider that e.g. your car mechanic, or domestic service (if you employ it), or housekeeping in hotel you stay, all have unsupervised access to some or all of your critical information and hardware. Yet, these people are not seen as threat actors by most people, because we trust them to not abuse that access, and we know there are factors at play to ensure that trust.

      In this context, I see Microsoft as belonging to the cohort above for most people. Both MS and your house cleaner will turn over your things to police should they come knocking, but otherwise you can trust them to not snoop through your stuff with malicious intent. And if you don't trust them enough - don't buy their services.

      1 reply →