Gpg4win usage in US institutions asking for ACR ('VPAT') and "terms".

[Bernhard Reiter]

Hello,

there have been three questions lately by US institutions similar to

 https://forum.gnupg.org/t/bureaucracy-policy-documentation/5949/2

asking for "terms and conditions" for Gpg4win or suggesting
individual ones. Or asking for "privacy terms" and a
self-assessment following VPAT
for an "Accessibility Conformance Report" (ACR).

As we all want all constitutional users to be able to use GnuPG and Gpg4win:

Does somebody have ideas how other Free Software products are handled regaring 
the "terms"? For instance LibreOffice or Firefox? And suggestions for 
GnuPG/Gpg4win?

Are there documents we could refer to, that explain the situation for a Free 
Software product for US organisations (or even state specific circumstances)?

For VPAT I did a quick search:

Found https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/accessibility/msg01041.html
2023 saying:
|  In the United States, without a VPAT, you can say goodby to the SMB and 
larger organisations.

| FWIW, over the years, individuals and corporations have posted requests for 
VPATs on various LibO lists. Invariably they are surprised and upset that 
LibO does not have one, and usually do not understand why the organisation 
that set LibO up on their system is responsible for providing the VPAT.

| Due to potential legal liability, amongst other things, LibO has not 
provided a generic VPAT. It is possible to craft a VPAT that is both 
accurate, and has minimal legal liabilities, when organisations grab it, 
without paying attention to what they are obtaining. The ethics of providing 
such a document is up to the individual, and/or corporate master.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/accessibility-features-firefox
seems to have one

|  Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR)
| This recent report describes how the Firefox browser currently works for 
| people with disabilities. It is based on the ITI Voluntary Product 
| Accessibility Template (VPAT® 2.5) and covers compliance with the Web 
| Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2) and with the Revised Section 508 
| of the Rehabilitation Act    

https://wiki.mozilla.org/images/d/d4/Firefox_VPAT_124_on_Windows_OS_%28April_2024%29.pdf

It is probably a bit of work to create an ACR and it may have legal 
implications as well. 

Werner, does GnuPG.com plan to create an ACR for GnuPG (VS) Desktop?
Maybe a general one for Gpg4win and this packaging with support
can be useful.

All: how would it help Gpg4win if we had an ACR like Mozilla?
Or can we somehow address the legal hurdles differently?

Best Regards,
Bernhard


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_Product_Accessibility_Template

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