dates and their representation

[John A. Martin]

>>>>> "Matthew" == Matthew Skala
>>>>> "Re: dates and their representation"
>>>>>  Sat, 26 Sep 1998 19:55:49 -0700 (PDT)

    Matthew> IMHO, the Right Thing to do with dates is:
    Matthew> - store and transmit dates in UTC (although if you're
    Matthew>   storing "seconds since epoch", you don't even store a
    Matthew>   time zone at all)
    Matthew> - display ALL dates according to the user's locale
    Matthew>   settings

FWIW I agree with both points.

    Matthew> It's a bad idea to store the time zone where a key was
    Matthew> generated or signature made, because that reveals what
    Matthew> part of the world the key or signature originates from,
    Matthew> and that could very well be something the user would want
    Matthew> to conceal.  It's bad even to store the time zone
    Matthew> optionally, because it becomes a sort of subliminal
    Matthew> channel.

It is, IMHO, of utmost importance not to store or transmit a local
time zone.  Providing an option not only provides a way for it to leak
out but provides an indication of the user's intent which could itself 
be damaging.

	jam