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Why does it need to be signed and encrypted? We have PGP, Signal and Co. for that. Mastodon is a microblogging service, it's perfectly fine to not sign all mes

by tscs37 9y ago

Why does it need to be signed and encrypted? We have PGP, Signal and Co. for that. Mastodon is a microblogging service, it's perfectly fine to not sign all messages (though ActivityPub does support signing) Mastodon is as trustworthy as your instance administrator, so you'll have to find a place where you can trust your admin.

snvzz 9y ago
>Why does it need to be signed and encrypted? We have PGP, Signal and Co. for that Note it IS signed. It's just not encrypted. It needs to be encrypted, too, because it's the reasonable expectation when private messages and followers-only messages exist. Additionally... should I be some location and post something, I'd be broadcasting my location, even if that isn't intended. All because it's not encrypted, where it should be. >Mastodon is as trustworthy as your instance administrator, so you'll have to find a place where you can trust your admin. That'd be true if it was peer-to-peer encrypted. But it is not; all messages are plaintext on the wire.
- daveid 9y ago
  >should I be some location and post something, I'd be broadcasting my location, even if that isn't intended Can you tell me how and where you would broadcast your location via Mastodon? There are no geolocation features in Mastodon. >It needs to be encrypted, too, because it's the reasonable expectation when private messages and followers-only messages exist. Has anyone attempted to encrypt a message to 64,000 recipients yet? I don't think restricting a message to followers is an applicable model for e2ee. Direct messages yes, I can see the point in that.
  - snvzz 9y ago
    >Can you tell me how and where you would broadcast your location via Mastodon? For a network observer, your IP address, associated with your account name. >I don't think restricting a message to followers is an applicable model for e2ee But requiring TLS between clients and servers, and between servers (for the federation), is applicable. >Direct messages yes, I can see the point in that. The average joe expects direct messages to really be private. If they're not, that's bad.
    - daveid 9y ago
      TLS is required in Mastodon for all transport. And of course your IP address is not included in any payloads leaving your server. >The average joe expects direct messages to really be private. If they're not, that's bad. They're not "really private" in Twitter DMs and Facebook Messenger and PMs on phpBB and Discourse forums, they were not "really private" in ICQ, AIM and XMPP (unless you installed the OTR plugin on the last one). E2EE is cool but most private messages on the internet do not use it and they are still called things like "private" and "direct".
      - snvzz 9y ago
        >TLS is required in Mastodon for all transport. Citation needed. I was told it's optional in a recent thread. >They're not "really private" in... Doesn't address the argument you quoted: >The average joe expects direct messages to really be private. If they're not, that's bad.
- tscs37 9y ago
  >all messages are plaintext on the wire. If you use TLS they aren't. >should I be some location and post something, I'd be broadcasting my location, even if that isn't intended. you broadcast it to your mastodon instance. In P2P you would actually be broadcasting your position to any network observer. In Federation only your instance knows.

by tscs37 9y ago

snvzz 9y ago

>Why does it need to be signed and encrypted? We have PGP, Signal and Co. for that Note it IS signed. It's just not encrypted. It needs to be encrypted, too, because it's the reasonable expectation when private messages and followers-only messages exist. Additionally... should I be some location and post something, I'd be broadcasting my location, even if that isn't intended. All because it's not encrypted, where it should be. >Mastodon is as trustworthy as your instance administrator, so you'll have to find a place where you can trust your admin. That'd be true if it was peer-to-peer encrypted. But it is not; all messages are plaintext on the wire.

daveid 9y ago
>should I be some location and post something, I'd be broadcasting my location, even if that isn't intended Can you tell me how and where you would broadcast your location via Mastodon? There are no geolocation features in Mastodon. >It needs to be encrypted, too, because it's the reasonable expectation when private messages and followers-only messages exist. Has anyone attempted to encrypt a message to 64,000 recipients yet? I don't think restricting a message to followers is an applicable model for e2ee. Direct messages yes, I can see the point in that.
- snvzz 9y ago
  >Can you tell me how and where you would broadcast your location via Mastodon? For a network observer, your IP address, associated with your account name. >I don't think restricting a message to followers is an applicable model for e2ee But requiring TLS between clients and servers, and between servers (for the federation), is applicable. >Direct messages yes, I can see the point in that. The average joe expects direct messages to really be private. If they're not, that's bad.
  - daveid 9y ago
    TLS is required in Mastodon for all transport. And of course your IP address is not included in any payloads leaving your server. >The average joe expects direct messages to really be private. If they're not, that's bad. They're not "really private" in Twitter DMs and Facebook Messenger and PMs on phpBB and Discourse forums, they were not "really private" in ICQ, AIM and XMPP (unless you installed the OTR plugin on the last one). E2EE is cool but most private messages on the internet do not use it and they are still called things like "private" and "direct".
    - snvzz 9y ago
      >TLS is required in Mastodon for all transport. Citation needed. I was told it's optional in a recent thread. >They're not "really private" in... Doesn't address the argument you quoted: >The average joe expects direct messages to really be private. If they're not, that's bad.
tscs37 9y ago
>all messages are plaintext on the wire. If you use TLS they aren't. >should I be some location and post something, I'd be broadcasting my location, even if that isn't intended. you broadcast it to your mastodon instance. In P2P you would actually be broadcasting your position to any network observer. In Federation only your instance knows.