DNSSEC and ISPs faking DNS responses

Sat Nov 14 16:39:35 UTC 2015

On Sat, Nov 14, 2015 at 3:34 AM, Roland Dobbins <rdobbins at arbor.net> wrote:
>>
>> More likely this is going to be iterations of what is already being more
widely accepted. Downloadable pre-configured client software that works
with a particular VPN service.
>
>
> Again, downloading is a barrier to entry.  Don't you remember the browser
wars and the Microsoft anti-trust case?

That was before the rise of the app.  Downloading is now much more common
than during the age of the browser wars.

As of October 2014, 64% of American adults owned a smartphone [1].  Phones
don't usually come with Candy Crush, but somehow, 93 *million* people
played it daily at one point.  They many not understand that when they
installed the app, they were "downloading" it.  But the end result is the
same.

Downloading is now a way of life -- and there are easily downloaded VPN
apps.  You don't have to know what a VPN is in order to use one.  Anecdote
!= data, but during the 2014 Olympics, Googling for "how to watch the
Olympics on the Internet" led many people I know to install one, without
asking me for advice like they usually do. :)

It sounds like we're arguing about the definition of the word "most".  Your
thesis appears to be that most people won't use a VPN -- and you're
probably right.  But what everyone else is saying is that the value of
"most" is likely to shrink rapidly.

And it may only take a secondary use case to reach critical mass.  People I
know who use WhatsApp seem to have started using it to avoid per-text
charges, not to get end-to-end encrypted messaging.  But now, even if
Facebook's estimate [2] of 450 million WhatsApp users is 90% inflated,
there are 45 million people using encrypted texting, which I would not have
predicted.

Most of those users probably don't know what "encryption" is.  But they're
using it.

Royce

1. http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/
2.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2014/02/19/facebook-justifies-19-billion-by-awe-at-whatsapp-growth/