Recent publications by Consumer Reports and the NSA have launched countless conversations in development circles about safety and its benefits. In these conversations, I’ve seen many misunderstandings about what safety means in programming and how programming languages can implement, help or hinder safety. Let’s clarify a few things.

A few weeks ago, Mozilla pulled the plug on its Connected Devices Experiment: a bunch of internal non-profit hardware-related startups. One of our main objectives was to determine if we could come up with designs that could help turn the tide against the spyware-riddled and gruyère-level security devices that are currently being offered (or pushed) to unwary users. One of the startups was Project Lighthouse. We tried to provide an affordable, simple and privacy-friendly tool for people suffering from vision impairment and who needed help in their daily life.