[Bug 296867] Re: empathy needs to support OTR encryption

[Bengt Lüers]

@sam-liddicott Empathy does not need to support OTR, because *there are
no* alternatives that do. Empathy needs to support OTR, because *there
are* alternatives that do. It is state of the art to support OTR and
Empathy not including it is backward.

Empathy is the instant messenger included the GNOME desktop which ships
as a default for many modern distributions, so Empathy is itself a
default. An user could educate oneself about this default, notice this
backwardness and replace Empathy with a less backward instant messenger.
Educating oneself about the security of the installed instant messenger
requires but examination that not all users  may be able to perform,
because of the complexity of the topic. So especially the less computer
literate users, who would benefit the most from it will not get covered
by OTR.

So this boils down to a question of defaults: Should the default be to
ship an instant messenger with OTR-support with GNOME desktop? I think
recent revelations have shown that "security by default" should have
been targeted wherever possible for a long time now.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/296867

Title:
  empathy needs to support OTR encryption

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