Google, Dropbox partner up to make security technology and tools simpler to use

Jos

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google dropbox simply secure

In this day and age of data breaches and government snooping, there’s a few things you can do to keep your data safer from prying eyes. Yet security solutions often require more figuring out and extra steps that most people  -- and even tech savvy folks --are willing to take, celebgate be damned.

To that end Google, Dropbox and the Open Technology are starting a new initiative called Simply Secure which aims to security technology more transparent to end users. Over the coming months, the group will be collaborating with open-source developers, designers, and researchers to take projects like Open Whisper Systems, The Guardian Project, Off-the-Record Messaging, and more, and make them easier to understand and use.

“We believe that people shouldn’t have to make a trade-off between security and ease of use. This is why we’re happy to support Simply Secure, a new organization dedicated to improving the usability and safety of open-source tools that help people secure their online lives," said Google.

Announcing the initiative, Simply Secure proclaimed four founding principles:

  • The future of a positive, accessible, and people-­centered Internet requires trustworthy privacy and security.
  • If privacy and security aren’t easy and intuitive, they don’t work. Usability is key.
  • Technology should respect the user’s desire for privacy and security.
  • Users shouldn’t have to choose between services they like and services that are secure; ­­they should be able to easily adopt privacy and security solutions for existing services.

It may be a while until we see the first fruits of this collaboration, but going by those principles it seems the focus could be on avoiding redundancy and working on helping developers integrate existing security technologies to work seamlessly on the background of existing online services.

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Google doesn't do that. Plus even if they did, wouldn't you want them too, instead of the NSA.
 
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