maqp

56 ms·

601.
by maqp 7y ago
Spot on. The thing is, content is still valuable and companies would like to access it on behalf of the government, but they now have to compete with private messaging apps. The big tech companies want the government to force them to make m
602.
by maqp 7y ago
Sure, and Signal is already working on usernames. Here's the kink: When you have low latency (video) calls, you can't route via Tor. When you can't route via Tor, you leak your IP to the server. When you leak your IP you&#x27
603.
by maqp 7y ago
No, when Telegram was published, it had identical UI to that of WhatsApp, although people seem to have conveniently forgotten this fact. Also, Telegram is still lacking basic E2EE for group chats, and you also can't have E2EE on deskto
604.
by maqp 7y ago
>not necessarily what everyone has installed at any given moment That applies to any distribution mechanism. >I still have to trust Signal the company to not violate the other ends. 99% of people are going to download the app from Pla
605.
by maqp 7y ago
Because you can look at the code yourself and verify there is no backdoor. You can never verify anything by looking at the money. You can ONLY verify anything by looking at the code. So stop looking at the money, start looking at the code.
606.
by maqp 7y ago
I just explained, people don't know how to threat model. An average Joe doesn't think "Whoa Ok, so this is TLS only, that means I should assume the server has access to content that might have implications depending on policy
607.
by maqp 7y ago
Even rms agrees that games do not need to be open source. It's when the program has control over your actual life when freedoms, privacy and security start to matter.
608.
by maqp 7y ago
You aren't required to trust Signal. You can read the source, you can compile it yourself, and you can use it. You can also do a reproducible build and check that it matches the hash of the APK served by the play store. "Open sour
609.
by maqp 7y ago
And Telegram is a ripoff of WhatsApp.
610.
by maqp 7y ago
Explain in detail how the money given with no strings attached magically convert the world's most scrutinized protocol, and the FOSS app with its reproducible builds.
611.
by maqp 7y ago
That only helps if you know you're not discussing anything sensitive. The problem is, people often do discuss sensitive matters. I don't think I even need to quote Cardinal Richelieu here, this is hacker news, no need to preach to
612.
by maqp 7y ago
This is misleading propaganda that ignores proper cryptographic design. It relies strongly on whataboutism and dismisses properly designed protocols as niche without really arguing from any other viewpoint as appeal to popularity. Furthermo
613.
by maqp 7y ago
Except Telegram also lacks the most important feature, ubiquitous E2EE. Russian state employs a lot of hackers and you're really fooling yourself if you think Pavel Durov can harden his infrastructure to protect from an entire state sp
614.
by maqp 7y ago
All companies that use strong encryption are banned. Domestic companies can't use proper encryption so they aren't really banned, lest they go under very fast.
615.
by maqp 7y ago
To add, never rely on products that require you to trust the company respects your privacy. E.g. Telegram lacks ubiquitous end-to-end encryption (E2EE) so even if the company chooses not to abuse the insane amounts of valuable data, nation
616.
by maqp 7y ago
So do we agree it was never good, or that it doesn't matter it's as insecure now as it was back then? Do we see reason or succumb to whataboutism?
617.
by maqp 7y ago
Haha. The entire Russian tech scene is about copying western products. Pavel copied VKontakte back when Facebook was starting. When he released Telegram it was the spitting image of WhatsApp. You might be right but Telegram's not on a
618.
by maqp 7y ago
Lots of people working remotely. In Russia foreign companies that won't share keys with government are banned so domestic market has room for insecure apps.
619.
by maqp 7y ago
That's what we could call nirvana fallacy. Sure, the stack is never 100% free. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't use free and open source stuff where possible. Plus why should we use something that isn't E2EE by default
620.
by maqp 7y ago
I think it's unwise to offer 1) proprietary solutions in the age of surveillance capitalism. 2) offer in-browser cryptography to ensure security. I don't see any end-to-end encryption elements in that. Your data gets essentially d
621.
by maqp 7y ago
Wickr is proprietary. That alone is a reason to abandon it ASAP.
622.
by maqp 7y ago
Ok lawyer, explain which US law allows compelled speech considering in djb vs US it was decided code was speech, and protected by the first amendment.
623.
by maqp 7y ago
This is about official communications in an organization with public lists of work phone numbers, not our underground cypherpunk community where we have no names maan we are nameless. There's no requirement to be anonymous in this cont
624.
by maqp 7y ago
It's all going to change over time. What matters here is the direction the app is going towards. Are we going to get more features? Yes. Are we confident the devs can deliver those features actually secure? Yes, these guys are the ones
625.
by maqp 7y ago
The benefit is, once you've got to have Signal installed, you'll probably want to talk to your friends over it as well to save time switching between the apps.
626.
by maqp 7y ago
1. The last time people bought non-transparent crypto from Switzerland it turned out decades later the company was secretly owned by the CIA. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/11/crypto-ag-ci..
627.
by maqp 7y ago
No you didn't. But I impled UI design doesn't matter when the important stuff like security isn't there. But hey, if feeling slick with your polished app and having nothing to hide is your thing, good for you.
628.
by maqp 7y ago
It's not what Signal is built for. If you want to join public chat rooms, you can use Telegram equally securely. E2EE never hurts in the case of public groups, but since you're not able to verify none of the group members are mali
629.
by maqp 7y ago
There's no technical limitation, but read this ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22357948 ) comment to understand why Signal did what they did. Your SIM card stores your contact list across devices. With usernames,
630.
by maqp 7y ago
"Or are there long-term plans to drop the critical reliance on phone numbers?" Yes https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-introducing-usern...

More ›