Security and Privacy Concern about Logos4 Phonning Home

As long as there is no CHOICE to store my notes on the Logos servers or not, I will choose to stay with Libronix 3...

Derek, there is a uservoice request concerning this.  If this is important for you, please vote for this request: http://logos.uservoice.com/forums/42823-logos-bible-software-4/suggestions/660833-add-an-option-that-allows-a-user-not-to-upload-the?ref=title

I added a few of my votes to the cause.

<EDIT> Sorry, not sure exactly where this thread current stands, but when I posted this I was starting to read from the beginning without looking at the dates.

No problem, I think we all have done this.  This security/privacy issue is becoming a lot like the note issue, every other month it comes back to life.

It's not possible to get all updates that way. Metadata updates certainly would be missed, perhaps some others too. Disconnecting entirely from the internet is overkill if you just want to prevent notes etc. from being synced to Logos' servers. Logos currently only use one address to achieve syncing, and that's sync.logos.com - and you can use any of the other methods you suggest to block access to that one site. Indeed, if you want belt and braces you can use more than one method.

Your feedback is always appreciated, Mark. Especially by someone who's tried using some of these methods...

A question for you. Why would someone *not* get metadata updates using one of the "move resource content from one computer to another" wiki methods? If all of those updates end up under one of the folders that's supposed to get copied, and you can do any requisite reindexing on the offline computer, what would they be missing. How are metadata updates different?

Note that I'm not worried about it for myself, necessarily. But I have used the wiki technique with success. I can do big downloads at work where I have a significantly faster internet connection, and then copy the updates to my home PCs (all used just by me).

Thanks,

Donnie

As far as I'm able to tell, metadata updates are written directly to the library, and one or two other databases. Only wiki suggestion #1 copies those databases. That's fine for a first time installation, but you can't keep copying files between installations to keep them permanently in sync. It just won't work (you'll end up over-writing one or the other). Using scan is fine (and supported). The Wiki method is unsupported, and I'd be very cautious about using it regularly just to keep two installations in sync.

Mark,

Rather than trying to keep them in sync, can you just copy one installation in its entirety anytime the program, resources, and/or metadata are updated? It appears you'd have to leave the "Documents\{random}" folder alone, as it contains all your personal work product.

Given that L4 is a lot less dependent (implicitly or explicitly) on the registry than most Windows apps (primarily because it's a .NET app), it seems like a straight file system copy of the whole thing should have a chance of working?

Donnie

Thanks for the replies, Mark.

It's mostly academic for me. I'm not counseling people such that their personal information is in my prayer lists, nor am I a missionary in an authoritarian country. As long as Logos doesn't lose my credit card data, I don't worry about my clippings or searches. If they're compromised, maybe someone will read them and come to know the Lord.

Donnie

Nothing has changed since I first said it: From April 26th: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/15836/122701.aspx#122701

"The greatest Constitutional mind of the 20th Century is Robert Bork. He was right to say privacy rights are NOT enumerated in the US Constitution. The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed when they allowed the FBI to hack a 15 yr old's computer to catch him making bomb threats.

Logos syncing with the Cloud is not a new threat to your privacy. Pandora's box was opened years ago. Your private details are all over the web. Ever bought from Am@zon? They use a half-dozen database mirrors located around the world. Mainland China hosts one of their server farms. The US Govt. secured 100,000 blank, reusable, re-assignable, domestic wiretap warrants to fight "terrorism." Are there really 100,000 terrorists out there? Recently millions of credit card numbers were stolen in one breach.  Madison Avenue has been collecting your purchasing data for decades. Your new cable TV boxes can report back what you watch and what commercials you skip. It's a little late to start worrying, if you haven't already been wary. Logos 4 is the least of your worries.

When Lady Godiva rode the horse through town nude, she gave up her rights to privacy! So did the Emperor when he donned his new clothes."

In light of Amazon shutting down Wikileaks server access I just want to suggest everybody just avoid putting anything on computer you could not survive becoming public. There is NO WAY you can secure everything from everyone if you place it on a hard drive.  (If privacy is really what you want, just don't put it on your computer.)

is not a new threat to your privacy.

if you grew up in a small rural town or a large family, you would never have bought into the myth of privacy. The likelihood that you should be doing anything

you could not survive becoming public.

should be about zero.

I grew up in a country with public baths. My bedroom walls were paper sliding doors. I lived in a city that never slept (Tokyo) with millions of people, half the population underground at any given time. I had to carry my alien registration with me at all times.

Then I returned to America and I lost my privacy.     [:D]

can anybody say  "irs, atf, fbi, secret service, keystone cops, wiretaps and warrant-less searches?" (federal firearms license applicants enjoy the last one.)

Neither my bank nor the Social Security Administration has protected my private information. I don't expect my Bible software to do what they could not.

But I never allowed any of my secrets to hurt anyone through disclosure.[A]