People used to use the postcards argument when trying to promote email encryption — “You put sensitive or private information in a letter, instead of writing it on a postcard.” Today, more people than ever use unencrypted email, text messages, and instant messaging. The usual case is that their passwords are encrypted (but that's not even true for a lot of POP3 users). Almost no one sends letters, though they do receive bills and such, and identity theft is a larger issue than it was fifteen years ago or so.
Is there a more relevant analogy than postcards for the current age?
1 comment:
Perhaps: would you read your credit card number over your mobile phone in a crowded restaurant, or on a bus?
I think it's applicable because odds are, nobody will write down the number -- but they could, and you'd never know until it's too late.
And, by now just about everyone has overheard a stranger having an uncomfortably personal phone conversation nearby.
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