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> I’m trying to learn ways to minimize my reliance upon large companies for handling my day-to-day personal data. Except that the moment you "share them across

> I’m trying to learn ways to minimize my reliance upon large companies for handling my day-to-day personal data. Except that the moment you "share them across devices", at least one large company will silently grab your contacts anyway. And several others will try to, too, with one excuse or another.

Spearchucker 9y ago
Yes. And it's this that made me write my own zero-knowledge sync service. I encrypt my stuff on the client, sync it to a server using store-and-forward, and pull it down from other devices whenever they have an internet connection. It's essentially file share for database records, and I remain surprised that something like this isn't in wide use already. Docs haven't been updated in years, but here's a description of the thing back when I was focused on the client rather than the sync engine - https://www.wittenburg.co.uk/Entry.aspx?id=a7aae391-9ac8-4117-af17-c923ff855456 https://www.wittenburg.co.uk/Entry.aspx?id=a7aae391-9ac8-411...
lorenzhs 9y ago
Why would anyone get your contacts if you sync them via your own CarDav server? You don't need to sync them to iCloud / Siri on iOS, and you can use non-Google Android phones.
- jeeva 9y ago
  As a few examples, there are a variety of social-network applications (LinkedIn, Facebook) that request access to your platform specific contacts application. They then do a variety of interesting things with them, such as suggesting users with numbers they have "on file" as potential new "Friends", etc. This is seemingly server-side. Whatever you're using to sync contacts, without syncing them to this contact app, it seems (to me) as useful as keeping a textfile full of phone numbers in Dropbox. You won't have any useful prompts telling you that it's Dave phoning you, John texting you, or Alice's number to phone/text. This is, admittedly, neatly worked around by keeping your permission requests under control, but... stuff like this[1], from before the granular permission system on Android was available, are annoying. 1: http://bgr.com/2011/08/12/facebook-stole-every-contact-and-phone-number-in-your-phone-heres-how-to-undo-the-damage/ http://bgr.com/2011/08/12/facebook-stole-every-contact-and-p...
  - lorenzhs 9y ago
    That's not an automatism nor inevitable, though. I don't have either of these apps on my phone. And both iOS and now Android have these dynamic permission dialogs where you can refuse access to your contacts. It may be inconvenient to use a messaging app without granting it access to your contacts, but I think all of them work that way on iOS. Refusing to work without access would be against the iOS guidelines iirc. But that wasn't the article's concern at all, as you pointed out in another comment.
jeeva 9y ago
To be fair, though, I read this as "I don't want a company closing down/sunsetting a service to end my ability to sync my data", not "I don't want companies to have my data". So though you have a point, I don't think it goes against the post.
- acidburnNSA 9y ago
  Thanks, this is primarily what I was going for. I'm also trying to be just a bit harder to snoop on but do realize that I'm nowhere near unsnoopable.
Silhouette 9y ago
Isn't the whole point of running your own servers for mail/calendar/contacts/etc. that you don't have to rely on synchronising things via anyone else's infrastructure? I want to have multiple devices able to access my important data. I have no interest in sharing that data with Google, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, or $SMALL_TIME_APP_DEVELOPER and will actively avoid any system that requires me to do so.

Spearchucker 9y ago

Yes. And it's this that made me write my own zero-knowledge sync service. I encrypt my stuff on the client, sync it to a server using store-and-forward, and pull it down from other devices whenever they have an internet connection. It's essentially file share for database records, and I remain surprised that something like this isn't in wide use already. Docs haven't been updated in years, but here's a description of the thing back when I was focused on the client rather than the sync engine - https://www.wittenburg.co.uk/Entry.aspx?id=a7aae391-9ac8-4117-af17-c923ff855456 https://www.wittenburg.co.uk/Entry.aspx?id=a7aae391-9ac8-411...

lorenzhs 9y ago

Why would anyone get your contacts if you sync them via your own CarDav server? You don't need to sync them to iCloud / Siri on iOS, and you can use non-Google Android phones.

jeeva 9y ago
As a few examples, there are a variety of social-network applications (LinkedIn, Facebook) that request access to your platform specific contacts application. They then do a variety of interesting things with them, such as suggesting users with numbers they have "on file" as potential new "Friends", etc. This is seemingly server-side. Whatever you're using to sync contacts, without syncing them to this contact app, it seems (to me) as useful as keeping a textfile full of phone numbers in Dropbox. You won't have any useful prompts telling you that it's Dave phoning you, John texting you, or Alice's number to phone/text. This is, admittedly, neatly worked around by keeping your permission requests under control, but... stuff like this[1], from before the granular permission system on Android was available, are annoying. 1: http://bgr.com/2011/08/12/facebook-stole-every-contact-and-phone-number-in-your-phone-heres-how-to-undo-the-damage/ http://bgr.com/2011/08/12/facebook-stole-every-contact-and-p...
- lorenzhs 9y ago
  That's not an automatism nor inevitable, though. I don't have either of these apps on my phone. And both iOS and now Android have these dynamic permission dialogs where you can refuse access to your contacts. It may be inconvenient to use a messaging app without granting it access to your contacts, but I think all of them work that way on iOS. Refusing to work without access would be against the iOS guidelines iirc. But that wasn't the article's concern at all, as you pointed out in another comment.

jeeva 9y ago

To be fair, though, I read this as "I don't want a company closing down/sunsetting a service to end my ability to sync my data", not "I don't want companies to have my data". So though you have a point, I don't think it goes against the post.

acidburnNSA 9y ago
Thanks, this is primarily what I was going for. I'm also trying to be just a bit harder to snoop on but do realize that I'm nowhere near unsnoopable.

Silhouette 9y ago

Isn't the whole point of running your own servers for mail/calendar/contacts/etc. that you don't have to rely on synchronising things via anyone else's infrastructure? I want to have multiple devices able to access my important data. I have no interest in sharing that data with Google, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, or $SMALL_TIME_APP_DEVELOPER and will actively avoid any system that requires me to do so.