Signed Pages VS FriendlyData

• Security Enhancement
  Signed Pages provides an additional security layer by ensuring the authenticity and integrity of web content. This is particularly beneficial in preventing man-in-the-middle attacks and unauthorized content modifications.
• Data Integrity
  By validating digital signatures, users can trust that the content they receive is exactly what the creator intended, which helps in maintaining data integrity.
• Trust Establishment
  It helps in building trust between web content providers and users by verifying the source of web pages through cryptographic signatures.
• Open Source
  Being an open-source project, it allows for transparency and community-driven improvements, meaning that developers can audit, contribute to, and customize the code.

Possible disadvantages

• Implementation Complexity
  Integrating Signed Pages into existing systems can be complex, particularly for developers unfamiliar with digital signatures and cryptographic practices.
• Performance Overhead
  The process of validating and signing pages can introduce additional computational load and latency, potentially affecting the performance of web applications.
• Key Management Challenges
  Effective key management is critical, and mishandling private keys or certificates could compromise the security benefits that Signed Pages aims to provide.
• User Adoption Hurdles
  For end-users, understanding and trusting the concept of digital signatures could be a hurdle, which affects widespread adoption and usability.

• Ease of Use
  FriendlyData allows users to interact with databases using natural language queries, which makes it accessible for non-technical users who are not familiar with complex database query languages.
• Time-Saving
  By enabling natural language processing, FriendlyData reduces the time it takes for users to get the information they need, facilitating quicker decision-making processes.
• Integration
  FriendlyData can be integrated with various platforms and services, making it versatile for different business needs.

Possible disadvantages

• Complex Queries Limitation
  While FriendlyData is useful for simple queries, it may struggle to accurately interpret and execute more complex queries, limiting its effectiveness for advanced data analysis.
• Language Ambiguity
  Natural language processing might not always accurately interpret user queries, especially if the input is ambiguous or lacks specificity.
• Dependency on Vendor
  Relying on third-party services like FriendlyData introduces dependency on the vendor for maintenance, updates, and support, which could pose risks if the service changes or is discontinued.

• Web-based cryptography is always snake oil

  There are some efforts to use extensions to allow signing/verification of web assets (assuming you trust the extension/browser), some via third parties: https://github.com/tasn/webext-signed-pages https://github.com/jahed/webverify... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

• E2EE on the web: is the web that bad?

  There is "Signed Pages" by the debeloper of EteSync. It is a browser extension, that checks webapps based on signatures in the html file. The addon then warns the user if the signature is not correct or - if I remember correctly - the... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago

• Cloudflare and CDNs - call for community opinions

  EteSync has implemented something called Signed Pages, this might be worth looking closer at. This uses PGP keys which is preloaded into the browser; but I suspect that will be a barrier too high for most non-tech users. Source: over 3 years ago

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Tracking FriendlyData since Mar 2021.