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I still have access to the Library edition. I`m wondering if I always did !!

It is still available until 31/12/2021 - Ancestry/ProQuest have announced that as the final end date for home access. (or perhaps until the next pandemic )

Hence I'm busy, head down researching at home while I still can.  Must dash. 

Hard drive encryption has been with us for quite some time. It is commonly used in commercial organisations, though apparently the MOD are less than keen, leading to embarrassing leaks of information. It should be seen as a positive security item, stopping all but the originating user being able to get at a document on a hard drive. Home users, though, are unlikely to understand its importance, or the requirement for backup.

I'm not sure it is a lack of understanding, more a case of not seeing the relevance. For business/work purposes, or where you otherwise take a laptop out and about with you, then it makes a lot of sense to password protect and encrypt everything in case the device is lost or stolen.  But for home laptops or desktops that rarely (or never) leave the house then encryption doesn't really add a great deal.

If someone has broken into your home and has physical access to the device then they are very likely to have free access to many other items in the home thah are more valuable or sensitive than the contents of your hard disk.  If the device is switched on and connected to the internet, and is vulnerable to remote access, then encryption is not going to stop people accessing your information because, as you also pointed out, just copying from an encrypted hard drive would decrypt it automatically before it left your machine.

Meanwhile there is not just the issue I mentioned already about data recovery, but also an overhead (however small) in operating the encryption/decryption function.  Given Window's penchant for slowing computers down until they are unusable, that overhead is just one more thing than many users could do without. 

The need to back up is of course not well followed by many people.  Whilst I use a batch file on my family history/personal finance PC to do regular backups of working files and folders through the day, and always before shutting down (in case of grinding crunching noises when starting up next time ), I would see that as being highly atypical... possibly to the point of obsessive. 

For those people who aren't so diligent when it comes to backing up, encryption of their disks will add a further barrier to the chances of them being able to recover their precious data when something goes wrong.

There should at least be an option to switch encryption off, even if it defaults to 'on' during installation.

Quote from: Nick_Ips on Tuesday 29 June 21 12:00 BST (UK)

Nevertheless, I personally wouldn't upload anything containing my full name, phone numbers, email, or postal address.

No need. They already HAVE all that. You ticked the box when you installed Microsoft software years ago.

Oh no they don't. 

Does this mean that so long as you are logged in only for as long as necessary, and don't do anything else on the computer at the same time, you're reasonably safe? Also, is this something that you could block with a firewall?

It depends what you mean by 'safe'.

In terms of a corporation using the data you've uploaded for a purpose you wouldn't want them to, then my own view is the risk is low - not because I trust the corporations, but because of the vast quantity of data and the utter irrelevance of most of it to the corporations concerned means that the reward vs effort equation isn't that positive for them.

Nevertheless, I personally wouldn't upload anything containing my full name, phone numbers, email, or postal address. In fact nothing I wouldn't be comfortable putting in the recycling/rubbish bins outside my house.  The reason for that is that once something is out of your control, you have no control over what other people might do with it.

The second point is that what is 'safe' depends entirely on what permissions and cookies etc you have allowed on your computer and accounts.  Tracking and monitoring are now so pervasive that anything you do on an internet-connected computer could be recorded and (later) added to a corporate database, even if you are logged out / disconnected from the internet at the time you are doing it.

A firewall makes no difference if you have given consent (even unknowingly) to having your data and activity tracked and logged.

To be really 'safe' requires a level of knowledge and dedication that few of us have. That's why I gave up a long time ago, and have maintained a second (or more!) computer which contains all my 'personal' information, and which never goes online.  It also means I could stick with Windows XP on that machine without fearing the doomsday scenarios used to encourage us to update/upgrade yet again.

Without the option of a second computer, I think by now I'd be using only a version of Linux developed by people who do have the knowledge and dedication required to make life as difficult as possible for the corporations.  There is always a trade-off between security and convenience, but on balance I'd normally go for the security of Linux vs the convenience of MS or Apple products.

I was quoting Nick’s opinion re rumour and gossip and was, I thought, giving his (Mr Hancock’s) reason for the breach of covid guidelines which was his admitted downfall i.e. his close contact with his friend.

That quote, with the important words bolded....

"But again, politicians are entitled to a private life, and judging them on the basis of rumour and gossip about their private life choices is wrong. Hancock's failure wasn't in his relationships, it was in breaching the guidelines his own department issued."

"Mr Hancock breached the guidelines through his close contact with and an admitted relationship with a friend who had been appointed by him to a position within his department."

= Fact (with the breach being a resigning issue)


[Edit: Examples below from elsewhere, not said by heywood]

"love rat"
"throughout most of it"
"I feel sorry for his wife and children"
"midlife crisis"
"Cheated"
"Mistress"
~and~
"Matt Hancock's secret affair with aide Gina Coladangelo..." [The Sun]
"Matt Hancock 'affair with Gina' is 'serious' and he is 'in love'..." [The Mirror]
"Callous Matt Hancock dumped wife on Thursday" [Daily Wail]
= Rumour and gossip (about private life choices)

Of course politicians aren't perfect, just like the rest of us thank goodness - I would certainly not want to be governed by a bunch who never did anything wrong and expected the rest of us to behave in the same way.

+1