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> Plain text means anyone can read your message while it's going over the wire. Plain text is a style of encoding information (e.g. binary, XML, JSON, plain te
by UnoriginalGuy 13y ago
> Plain text means anyone can read your message while it's going over the wire.
Plain text is a style of encoding information (e.g. binary, XML, JSON, plain text, etc). Encryption determines if someone can intercept your message.
Something can be both plain text and secure, like HTTPS for one example.
- Osmium 13y agoIt's my understanding that people often use "plaintext" in contrast to "ciphertext", so it's not unreasonable for someone to read "plaintext" and think "unencrypted".
- npsimons 13y agoExcept in a discussion such as this one, where we're explicitly talking about Google locking out competitors by replacing plain (ASCII) text protocols with proprietary binary ones.
- laumars 13y agoTo be fair, this discussion is a huge tangent about e-mail protocols. So both definitions of plain text could be contextually valid.
- daeken 13y agoI've been trying to force myself to use "cleartext" instead of "plaintext" to alleviate this ambiguity. It's remarkably hard to do after so long, though.
- freehunter 13y agoPlaintext is also a way of saying unencrypted, which SMTP is. By default, SMTP is plain text and plaintext, but you can send SMTP over SSL to make it plain text and encrypted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_text http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_text http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaintext http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaintext