Simon via QGIS-User <qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org> writes: > Now, a large portion of the information regarding the buildings and > their locations is confidential, and so I'm wondering if the > geodatabase and layer that I plan to create will be safe and > protected, or if other users will have access to them since QGIS is > free and open source?
I will address the larger academic point to the assembled list readers, and not discuss your specific situation. I do not want to let the "Free Software might not be safe" idea go unchallenged. The idea that QGIS is not safe *because* it is Free Software (and also Open Source software) is fundamentally incorrect. There are two entirely separate concepts: 1) When you run the software: a) what ability does the software have to send the data it is processing to third parties, if it tried? b) does the software have bugs that would result in access by a third party? c) is the software maliciously coded to send data to third parties? 2) What is the license of the software? a) May you obtain and run it without specific additional permissions? Or do you have to pay? b) Do you have obligations, such as if you distribute a modified binary, that you also distribute the corresponding sources? Software quality is a hard problem, but the idea that Free Software is unsafe and proprietary software is safe (with respect to 1a) and also the other way around are both totally unsupported by evidence. One has to look at the track record of each software package. Point 1)c) is a huge issue. With Free Software, almost always the authors are writing it because it solves some problem of theirs, not in order to exploit or monetize other's data. Some Free Software is part of a business plan and is Free Software according to the license but outside the Free Software community. With proprietary software that has high license costs (e.g. ESRI), it being non-malicious is quite plausible (but people cannot read the code and verify that) because there is an explanation for how the company makes money. With proprietary software that is distributed at zero or low cost (iOS and Google app stores), significant amounts of it contains libraries that exfiltrate data. I call this malware, even though that is for some reason not the usual definition. (To me, a program is malware if it acts contrary to the interests of the person/organization operating the computer it is running on, especially if the behavior is not adequately described by an easily-available written specification.) There is perhaps a third concept, "the cloud", which really means "a computer someplace else under someone else's control". That is something that can appear with both Free Software and proprietary software. However, the Free Software community has a norm that programs that require a specific server are bad, while ones that come with the server code that let you set up your own instance are better. QGIS is not tied to any specific server instance; that would be viewed as outrageous by this community. With respect to licensing, using Free Software and not creating derived works is not administratively difficult in a corporate or military environment. It merely requires reviewing the license to understand the rules -- which you have to do with a proprietary license, except that proprietary licenses are usually so restrictive that actual compliance is difficult. > At first, I was planning to work with ArcGIS Pro but I'm currently > waiting for a license. When or if it comes through, I'll stick with > ArcGIS but for now QGIS seems to be the best alternative. I would expect that people in your situation generally have a procurement requirement to evaluate the approaches and make some best-fit decision. With Free Software, there is no need to obtain additional per-seat licenses so that other people can use the tool. I have the impression that ArcGIS is quite expensive, but I've never tried to find out what the price is. This is of course a complicated issue and I could not begin to suggest a particular answer without knowing vast amounts of details (and then, there are other issues; see below). > If QGIS is not safe, are there other safe and similar softwares you can > recommend? I believe that QGIS is safe (as far as software on a computer goes; paranoia comes in many shades), and I don't see any reason to think it is less safe than ESRI. Unfortunately I, like all Americans, am legally precluded from giving you advice about your specific situation due to ITAR. I would suggest you find a consultant within Canada. Thank you for being upfront about your situation. Greg _______________________________________________ QGIS-User mailing list QGIS-User@lists.osgeo.org List info: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user Unsubscribe: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user