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Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

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Re: Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

#81

Post by vog »

cdnsteve wrote: post #16
henryboldi wrote: post #2

Hi I'm Henry, the creator of Felony I’ve had a passion for politics, history, and programming since the age of 12 growing up in a suburb of Chicago. During my freshman year, I developed an interest in software. A couple of apps and hackathons (programming competitions) later, I was working on my own startups when I made the leap to drop out of high school to become a software engineer at a venture-backed tech startup…

This looks like an interesting project but has a poor name choice. If it's targeted at non technical users, it may actually prevent them from using it, out of fear that just using it is illegal.

See also the other discussion thread on that topic:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12030492

Re: Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

#83

Post by nickpsecurity »

Most are focused on the name, which is terrible, while only one other (so far) noticed the big problem: Electron, React, and Redux. A secure messenger needs to have strong endpoint security. Easiest way to do that is using safe, system languages with simple implementation, as few dependencies as possible, and isolation of app from rest of the system. That's one of safe C's, restricted C++, SafeD, Ada/SPARK, Component Pascal, Rust... any of those with portable code for main library plus modules for OS-specific stuff (esp GUI & filesystem). That would have a chance of surviving hackers, esp good ones.

I know almost nothing of the above frameworks. However, Google gave me front pages for each that look more complex in implementation and dependencies than a C, Ada, or Rust app. Unnecessarily so. Secure applications should follow Lean and KISS principles every chance.

Note to author: All that said, if you're just doing it for fun or learning, then that's cool. Also a good area to learn about. :) The above applies to implementations meant to be used in field.

Re: Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

#84

Post by mildavw »

programmarchy wrote: post #54
mildavw wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suggestions and/or concepts you (OP) want to evoke: Patriot Freedom Liberty Good Citizen Free Speech America Fourth Amendment Secure In Papers Right To Privacy

I'll add a counter point and say that I like the name. Politicians have a history of inverting meanings, e.g. Patriot Act, Affordable Health Care Act, etc. -- the public is almost conditioned to invert logic to understand things at this point. Personally, I find the terms above to be patronizing and even suspicious in the political context. The mental operation of inverting the word felony is kind of interesting and…

I hear ya. And I'm sure most HN readers understand and share your cynicism. But I think naming it something satirical and anti-double-speak ultimately increases your odds of being misunderstood.

The OP is honestly interested in furthering the right to privacy. State it plainly and simply. (It doesn't inoculate the app from being painted as a terrorist abetter, but it's the best you can do.)

Re: Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

#85

Post by ourmandave »

kbart wrote: post #32
deanCommie wrote: post #21

Okay, I'll be the contrarian one: I HATE the name. There have already been trends in the mainstream and right wing media that "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear", that the NSA only monitors the communication of criminals, and that things like iPhone encryption help terrorists first. With that in mind, can you imagine the reaction that the average lay-person will have when they see a clickbait head…

Agree. Epithets like "darknet", "dark mail", "underground net" etc. along with names like this certainly doesn't help to improve encryption and privacy promoting software image to general public and media. I understand that it's a joke, but only a handful people will get that, for most others it will be another app that enables pedophiles and terrorist to get away with their crimes.

You forgot Bitcoin.

Re: Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

#86

Post by mysterypie »

jackweirdy wrote: post #28
deanCommie wrote: post #21

Okay, I'll be the contrarian one: I HATE the name. There have already been trends in the mainstream and right wing media that "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear", that the NSA only monitors the communication of criminals, and that things like iPhone encryption help terrorists first. With that in mind, can you imagine the reaction that the average lay-person will have when they see a clickbait head…

Nor does it help the cause of explaining to the general public that encryption is something they do use and should use in their own lives.

An "edgy" name can get you in real trouble. The brilliant programmer Dan Farmer [1] who developed the security tool that he named SATAN [2] was fired from his job when he published his program. If you haven't heard of SATAN, it was the most important network security analysis tool in the late 1990s.

I feel certain that the name was the critical factor that made his company so nervous. For a while he had two different names for the program, SATAN and SANTA, to try and reduce the stigma, but it didn't work.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Farmer

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_Administrator_Tool_fo...

Re: Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

#87

Post by ascendantlogic »

deanCommie wrote: post #21

Okay, I'll be the contrarian one: I HATE the name. There have already been trends in the mainstream and right wing media that "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear", that the NSA only monitors the communication of criminals, and that things like iPhone encryption help terrorists first. With that in mind, can you imagine the reaction that the average lay-person will have when they see a clickbait head…

I just put in an issue to change the name. Looks like one was put in prior and closed without comment by the repo owner. I hope he doesn't think this is some edgy way to be "cool"

EDIT: He closed my issue without comment.

Re: Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

#88

Post by Sylos »

deanCommie wrote: post #21

Okay, I'll be the contrarian one: I HATE the name. There have already been trends in the mainstream and right wing media that "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear", that the NSA only monitors the communication of criminals, and that things like iPhone encryption help terrorists first. With that in mind, can you imagine the reaction that the average lay-person will have when they see a clickbait head…

Yeah, and on the other side we have propaganda-names like "USA PATRIOT Act" or "Privacy Shield".

Re: Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

#89

Post by clarkmoody »

mildavw wrote: post #44
deanCommie wrote: post #21

Okay, I'll be the contrarian one: I HATE the name. There have already been trends in the mainstream and right wing media that "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear", that the NSA only monitors the communication of criminals, and that things like iPhone encryption help terrorists first. With that in mind, can you imagine the reaction that the average lay-person will have when they see a clickbait head…

Suggestions and/or concepts you (OP) want to evoke: Patriot Freedom Liberty Good Citizen Free Speech America Fourth Amendment Secure In Papers Right To Privacy

+1 for Liberty

That's the concept that encapsulates privacy, speech, etc.

The America-centric names are less appealing to me, since many equate "America" with the federal government, which is definitely not the friend of liberty / free speech / privacy.

Re: Felony – An open-source PGP keychain

#90

Post by zouhair »

bwghughes wrote: post #56
cdnsteve wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks like an interesting project but has a poor name choice. If it's targeted at non technical users, it may actually prevent them from using it, out of fear that just using it is illegal.

I think folks should chill on the name. It's just a word which makes it stand out as a product. Good job !!

Words have meaning and are way more important than you could even imagine. We don't think with words, we use words to think.

One example comes to mind, back in the day people used to use the word "Exploited" to talk about workers being drained of their life force. When you say exploited you assume that there is an exploiter, that someone is guilty of that worker's shitty life.

Now we mostly say the "Disenfranchised" or "Disadvantaged" which takes the "Exploiter" out of the equation entirely and put the workers plight mostly on the back of bad luck than anything else.

Words are very important.

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