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Is a section for smart card readers needed ?
submitted by strk, 10:21, 3 February 2013
TOPIC: new categories of hardware
STATUS: opened
PRIORITY: low
Description:
See http://www.gnupg.org/howtos/card-howto/en/smartcard-howto-single.html#id2503342
Messages:
tonicucoz:
Yes, it could be nice to add a section for smartcard readers, I will add it as soon as possible Thanks
submitted by tonicucoz, 07:18, 6 February 2013
Tototi:
I'd say it is absolutely urgent and of strategic relevance, because people (at least here in Europe) are gradually being forced to adopt smart-card readers as a means to interact with their respective Governments. Already, lawyers, accountants and physicians have to use such cards to identify themselves in everyday work, but now this is spreading to the general public in order to pay taxes, access one's medical and retirement fund records, etc. What a wonderful occasion for a very big provider of operating systems to bribe (sorry: lobby) the politicians to force every houshold to own at least a PC computer just to be able to plug-in a compatible smart-card reader!

By the way, I wonder if anybody (maybe the FSF?) is already carrying out a full-size, openly motivated and advertised battle against the use of e-goverment legislation as a means for perpetuating software monopolies (through hardware compatibility).

Needless to say, both security and identification ultimately rely on hardware recognition, so anything that has to do with HW is going to be a very, very big vulnerabilty for the cause of free software - and, as usual, everything will be done in name of our safety, privacy, time-saving, and efficiency of the state administration. Secure boot is just the beginning, perhaps a first experiment.

Thank you.
submitted by Tototi, 05:11, 30 April 2013
Tototi:
REMARK - When I say "force every houshold to own at least a PC computer" I mean of course "a PC computer with a certain brand of operating system installed on it".

As a second thought, if there is no certification system in place for security/ID-related hardware that is compatible with free software, even a honest government would be forced to forget about free operating systems in their offices, hospitals, schools, etc.
submitted by Tototi, 05:22, 30 April 2013

Write below your motivation

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