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madaidans-insecurities / madaidans-insecurities.github.io

https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/
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Might be good to consider element.io/matrix in messaging apps #3

Open savyajha opened 4 years ago

savyajha commented 4 years ago

Matrix seems to be a decentralised, federated chat server/protocol. It also seems to be picking up in adoption. If you've got the time and the willingness, it might be a good idea to have a look at it?

Mikaela commented 4 years ago

It's at least storing all removed media uploads forever https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/1263, so called /myroomnick and /myroomavatar are shown for people searching for you https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/5677, emoji reactions in encrypted rooms aren't encrypted (according to view source button and showing hidden events on the timeline) and privacy sprint.

savyajha commented 4 years ago

All three are serious, yeah. But just to be clear, between this and Signal, your recommendation would be to go for Signal even if you host your own homeserver?

Mikaela commented 4 years ago

I am not affiliated with Madainan and personally I am using a lot of chat apps regardless of their security or privacy.

I cannot recommend Matrix for people with low-end phones (e.g. Nokia 1/TA-1047) and I think in practice you selfhosting doesn't matter unless all your contacts are either on the same homeserver or also selfhosting as Matrix by design syncs the message histories on all homeservers that have members in rooms. On that matter as Matrix doesn't yet have the concept of contacts (outside of identity servers), I don't think I would recommend it for chatting between individuals unless they are part of some community that is already using Matrix.

Edit: to clarify, it depends. If I trust you with my phone number, I will most likely prefer to communicate with you on Signal. I am not selfhosting and neither are the majority of my contacts.

Mikaela commented 3 years ago

I happened to remember this issue and wanted to say that yesterday I finally wrote my own blog post about the subject of (Element inconsistencies) Matrix, Synapse and privacy.

The only change from older comments from 2020 is that they have renamed and deprecated the privacy sprint label, which is now z-privacy-sprint and likely due to deprecation won't be updated. I edited it in my first comment appropiately.