Removing disable idle system screenlock as default behaviour for Plasma 5

[Daniel Vrátil]

On Sunday, April 26, 2015 04:30:53 AM Kevin Kofler wrote:
> Germano Massullo wrote:
> > KDE Plasma 5 locks the screen with user password after 5 minutes of
> > system being in idle.
> > I think that we should disable screenlock as default behaviour for KDE
> > Plasma, because it will annoy many users. If anybody needs it, it can be
> > easly activated.
> 
> +1. Sorry Lukáš and Rex, but we should really override the upstream default
> and revert to the Plasma 4 default here.
> 
> Automatically locking the screen after n minutes of inactivity is inherently
> flawed and insecure, because it gives an attacker n minutes of time to take
> over your desktop. There is NO alternative to locking your screen manually
> when leaving your desktop. Therefore, supporting automatic locking sends
> the entirely wrong message. (It lets users get away with laziness, until
> they get burned by it.)
> 
> And then there is the annoyance factor already mentioned by other posters.
> And the added exceptions for things like video players just make it MORE
> likely that the automatic locking the user was relying on will not happen
> (e.g., because of an embedded video in some web page in the background).
> 
> The message should be: If you want the screen to be locked, then lock it. It
> only takes 2 clicks.

We should *NOT* change the default behaviour. The message to users is "there 
is a lockscreen". That's it. That's the point. It's for new users (as well as 
many existing users) to realize that there is this important security measure. 
The only way to introduce an important feature to users is to enable it by 
default.

It's not to teach people to rely on their screen locking in 5 minutes, but to 
make sure the screen locks when you forget to.  It's to safeguard your data 
when you /forget/ to lock the screen.

I never had a problem with my screen autolocking when watching movies or 
playing games (what else are you people doing that you just stare into the 
screen for 5 minutes?) - and if you do, the fix is not to disable auto-
lockscreen, the fix is to fix the broken software that does not set inhibition 
correctly. 

And for the argument that "it's just 30 seconds and few clicks to turn the 
autolock on again". Well it's also 30 seconds and a few clicks to turn it off. 
Your annoyance does not outweight the added security the automatic lockscreen 
provides.

Cheers,
Daniel

> 
>         Kevin Kofler
> 
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