[rch]

Mostly just policy around certain types of data. That people who complain about such policies are also willing to e-mail around zip files is beside the point.

Edit: it seems like I read about certain algorithms that could perform calculations without direct knowledge of the underlying data, but I can't find a link. It only worked for a specific class of problems in any case.

[Someone]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption

[rch]

Thanks!

[mathattack]

ok - so this is just for the corporate environment that there would be these issues? But couldn't they just have a similar getup sending all their processing to their own data center in the background?

My intuition has us going back to the dumb terminal mode, albeit with a very fancy screen.