I agree.

-Consumer education is indeed a difficult and frustrating process.
-Real need to get apps in the hands of users

But I think it's something that should become the responsibility of the providers.  Both security and responsibility (for filters) should at some point be laid in the hands of the providers.  I don't think most end-users are going to understand the aspects of encryption, but I think they will understand if a certain provider has a superior product, and these should be made available.  Maybe not as a mandate, but as encouragement.  But, I see in my crystal ball that some big provider will eventually face a big class-action and force everyone else to take responsibility.

Randy Glass
A@L



On 8/7/07, Brendler, Beau <Brenbe@consumer.org> wrote:
Consumer education is indeed a difficult and frustrating process.

My hope would be to focus on the first part of the excerpted comment
from Bret:

"So I see a real need to get apps in the hands of users that can handle
security in an easy, transparent way..."

Sometimes this is a better approach, perhaps involving consumers at the
"front end," than creating something in isolation, then expecting
consumers to learn how to "properly" use it.

-----Original Message-----
From: John L [mailto:johnl@iecc.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 9:23 AM
To: Bret Fausett
Cc: Brendler, Beau; NA Discuss
Subject: Re: [NA-Discuss] Conversation with Dave Piscitello


> So I see a real need to get apps in the hands of users that can handle
> security in an easy, transparent way and then to educate users about
> what the technology is, what it means to them, and how to use it.

I agree, but this has been a problem for at least a decade; S/MIME has
been around that long, most but as you note not all mail clients handle
it, and how many people use it?  Not many.  This is particularly
discouraging since S/MIME has been supported for many years in popular
programs including Outlook, Outlook Express, and Thunderbird, and the
support is good, once you're configured, it's at most one click to sign
or
validate a message.  If after all this time Blackberry doesn't find
S/MIME
work handling, it shows how little mindshare it's got.

Given the long and discouraging history of efforts to get people to use
computers more securely, before the ALAC jumps down this rathole I would

want to understand why we think we could succeed where so many have
failed
in the past.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for
Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be,
http://www.johnlevine.com, ex-Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please",
said Tom, revealingly.

***
Scanned

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