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| reply to jap
I'm not trying to make you feel dumb.
I'm just saying that for the past 20 years interfaces have been becoming easier and simpler. That's not a bad thing, but the caveat is that everything gets automated, and the user is not required to have any idea what the consequences of his or her actions are.
Think of it as when the day comes when cars drive themselves -- but you don't know what the brake pedal does when that auto-pilot doesn't behave exactly as you expect.
Computers are not simple appliances. Even though the marketing pinheads would like to position them as such, and every Wal-Mart computer purchaser would like to use them as such - it will never happen. If you are storing, sending, and receiving personal information on a device, it has to be stored somewhere. Whether that's in memory or on disk..
Encryption is possible, and should be used wherever possible - but it does slow things down, and does require further engineering and user complexity - since user authentication and the concept of trusted events and resources must now be used.
Note it this way. This problem is not a problem on a computer used by only one person. So, the issue is on multiple user systems. On a multiple user system, if the cache was encrypted (this is not under Google's control), there would have to be a separately maintained cache and authentication system for each user. This adds complexity back to the user interface. Now "Joe User" is complaining as to why he has to log in to his web browser, or create a new profile when he logs on to a public machine. Follow that thread on and on.
G |