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"plain text" is also a technical term.

Ask the average joe what it means for something to be in "plain text" and you'd probably get the answer "Oh that's simple, they didn't write it out in cursive!"

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I think the average non-technical reader could figure out that "plain text" refers to some variant of "········" rather than "password," even if the understanding is lacking technical depth.

My point was a term such as 'unencrypted' would probably be the word I'd use to explain the concept of a 'plain text' password to a non technical user.

Encrypted implies that the passwords could possibly be decrypted with a key.

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