Re: w/r/t Privacy

On Wed, 5 Nov 2008, Kartikaya Gupta wrote:
>
> I disagree with your point (1). Let me try to illustrate with an 
> example. Say there's a company that makes mobile devices. These devices 
> have a GPS unit but no internet connectivity. The platform on the mobile 
> device is proprietary and closed. Third-party apps are allowed, but in 
> order to use the location information from the GPS unit they are 
> *required* to follow the user-specified usage rules. (For the sake of 
> simplicity, let's say the usage rules consist of a duration, which is 
> how long the app can hold on to the location data). The platform 
> enforces this requirement by a relatively simple mechanism: the 
> third-party developers are subject to source code audits by the mobile 
> device manufacturer to ensure their code complies with the requirement. 
> If it does not, or if they refuse the source code audit, their app is 
> banned from the platform.

Does this platform exist, or is it hypothetical?


> If you can point out a choice in my example above that is neither 
> misleading nor confusing, I'd be much obliged. I think that at best, 
> it's a choice between the lesser of two evils.

If such a platform exists, then I agree that _for that platform_, both of 
the suggestions you mentioned would be either confusing or misleading.

However, if no such platform exists, this is an academic concern.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Wednesday, 5 November 2008 14:46:45 UTC