Re: [Tails-project] #8948: Reconsider the terminology around…

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Author: sajolida
Date:  
To: alienpup, Public mailing list about the Tails project
Old-Topics: Re: [Tails-project] #8948: Reconsider the terminologyaround "persistence"
Subject: Re: [Tails-project] #8948: Reconsider the terminology around "persistence"
alienpup:
> As an english speaker, "Persistent Storage" sounds like a good
> candidate.


Good!

> However I remain concerned that no one has brought up the fact that,
> "Persistent Storage" is limited to specific folders - folders that
> are not the default storage place for *any* Tails application. For
> example, Tor Browser defaults saving everything to the "Tor Browser"
> folder. Everything saved while using TB and *not* moved by the user
> to the "Tor Browser" or "Persistent/Tor Browser" folder, is lost at
> shutdown/reboot.
>
> Both the Tails Greeter and the "Persistence Wizard - Persistent
> volume creation" dialog fail to inform the user on this point. Both
> accept a user password, but say nothing about where files/data *must
> be placed* in order be persistent.
>
> The concept of persistence is really more complex that our discussion
> has made it. "Persistent Storage" is indeed a Tails feature, but it:
>
> - is available only to data stored in one of two user visible two
> folders
>
> - is dependent on the user manually moving data to these folders.
>
> So perhaps we should be thinking in terms of a user option that
> creates "persistent folders". This is in fact what users experiences,
> as the "Persistent" and "Tor Browser (persistent) folders do not
> appear until Tails persistence is configured.


You're right. I wanted to limit this discussion to the terminology and
the name of the feature. But I agree with you that how this feature is
integrated on the desktop is not currently very good.

For the record, our basic as assumption is that no data is saved in the
Persistent Storage unless the user chooses it:

https://tails.boum.org/doc/encryption_and_privacy/your_data_wont_be_saved_unless_explicitly_asked/

(very very old doc pages!!!)

But as you saying, another way of approaching it while keeping this
basic assumption would be to let people choose which folders they want
to persist.

I don't think that we'll have the resources to make a lot of changes to
the basic functioning of how the Persistent Storage works in Tails in
the near future so I'll refrain from discussing it further now (and
without user-centered process) but I really want us to get to it at some
point.

--
sajolida
Tails — https://tails.boum.org/
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