(Standard Rant Disclaimer: This is a rant, the purpose of which is to vent about something that I find upsetting. It is not a request for assistance. Attempts to solve my problem are not welcome and may result in defriending and/or blog account deactivation.)

OK, so, when I made the saved game file structure for Primrows, I thought it prudent to encrypt the game data to curtail cheaters -- particularly since I've got a global high score board going on. As design decisions go, it was a real no-brainer... or so I thought.

While trying to hunt down a bug with my encryption/decryption code, though, I came across a startling fact: If you use encryption at all, even if you're just using a standard, publicly-available algorithm that comes pre-loaded onto every iPhone, you need to file something called a CCATS. I don't know what that stands for. I'm not even 100% certain about what it is. All I know about it is that

1. it sucks
2. it is fucking pointless
3. Apple won't publish your app without one (if you're using encryption)
4. it has something to do with export regulations on encryption
5. apparently the NSA has enough spare time on their hands that they need to fill it by investigating saved game encryption algorithms
6. The unofficial instructions on how to get a CCATS are 9 pages long
7. The official instructions are much longer, written in convoluted legal-speak peppered with needless three-letter acronyms, and kept on a website so labyrinthine they may as well be locked in a file cabinet in a basement behind a door marked "beware of tiger."
8. It takes like two months for them to process your request
9. It apparently doesn't matter that I didn't write the encryption software itself, and that Apple presumably already had to file one of these for the code they wrote and ship out
10. it is a sucking fucking god damn ass-backwards piece of fuck
11. I hate it

So in the end I'm left with a new design choice to make: deal with this nonsense (which could, in addition to being a headache, delay the release of my app by three months), or deal with the nonsense of the inevitable asshole who will go to the trouble of hacking their save files with implausably high scores just so they can see their own jag-off name at the top of some list. Sigh...