[HN Gopher] Matrix has become the messaging app of choice for to...
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Matrix has become the messaging app of choice for top-secret
communications
Author : ______-
Score : 29 points
Date : 2021-06-14 17:51 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (wired.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (wired.co.uk)
| jmcnulty wrote:
| I tried this recently for the first time using Elements and have
| struggled with it. There's no message threading, so it's very
| hard to discover the history and flow of a subject when it's
| embedded in a larger conversation. I'll keep an eye on this and
| check back from time to time, but right now it's not for me.
| slim wrote:
| I'm amazed at how much PR matrix gets for an opensource project
| not supported by any company. Congratulations to all supporters
| ncmncm wrote:
| Eh? Matrix is heavily supported by Element (nee Vector), which
| operates development on the workhorse "home server"
| implementation, Synapse, and its hoped-to-be successor,
| Dendrite, and operates a business providing cloudy private
| homeservers.
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| I'm pretty sure the developers of Element are sponsoring matrix
| and also running servers as business. So it's not entirely non
| profit, though it's definitely open source and there's no
| limited 'community edition' :)
| munawwar wrote:
| Wonder what people here think of signal. I find it more user
| friendly than matrix. Any info about it's security vs matrix?
| m-p-3 wrote:
| What about Briar? https://briarproject.org/
|
| Seems like it's decentralized and uses Tor natively.
| ______- wrote:
| There's also another obscure and less well known messaging
| app called CWTCH https://cwtch.im/ It's still in development
| though...
| derbOac wrote:
| I agree Briar always has seemed even more decentralized and
| security conscious than Matrix. I tried to use Briar with my
| family for awhile and it worked well but its always on
| function was a bit difficult on mobile (it seems like
| something that would be worthwhile for some circumstances but
| maybe not worth the cost for just chatting about groceries).
|
| However, in reading the article, they discussed group
| communication functions in Matrix, which were absent from
| Briar for awhile.
|
| They also mention that Matrix is planing on introducing mesh
| networking, which is very similar to Briar. I found this
| extremely interesting. It seems like Briar and Matrix are
| sort of coming full circle to each other. I'd love to see
| either or both take off.
| sschueller wrote:
| Signal is Moxie and I personally don't trust Moxie and have
| some issues with his attitude. Does this make signal unsafe, no
| of course not but I don't trust it even if the encryption is
| top notch.
|
| Also remember you must have a phone number to use signal.
| fragileone wrote:
| Signal hides metadata better however it's based in the US, you
| are required to use your phone number as an identifier and
| Moxie refuses to allow Signal to be decentralised. Security-
| wise they both use the double-ratchet algorithm to encrypt
| messages.
| gen3 wrote:
| Matrix uses the same encryption as signal, one of their
| implementations can be found here:
| https://gitlab.matrix.org/matrix-org/olm
| junon wrote:
| My issue with Matrix is the philsophy attached to it. The
| founders and its most vitriolic supports are activists, through
| and through, and view Signal as a messaging app for activists.
|
| When the Cellebrite malware was added to Signal by the
| developer(s) I mentioned that Cellebrite was used by legitimate
| phone carriers to transfer data between an old phone and a new
| phone.
|
| I asked why my elderly mother, with whom I speak to over
| Signal, should be liable for a potentially broken Cellebrite
| machine (costing thousands) if the Signal malware were to break
| it. There's no precedent on whether or not she'd be liable, so
| there's a possibility she would be.
|
| She never consented to her phone being used as a weapon. She
| doesn't understand the stuff going on. She uses Signal because
| it's simple, easy to understand, I'm just a few button presses
| away (we don't live near each other) and the call quality is
| unmatched.
|
| I got a few very angry responses, telling me to uninstall
| Signal if I wasn't willing to be an activist for their agenda.
| They were perfectly okay with their philosophy being projected
| onto their users and didn't see any issue in the fact that
| users did not consent to it.
|
| Which is strange, because they're annoyed with other Big Tech
| firms doing... well, the same exact thing.
|
| I really hope Matrix improves its UX since I would immediately
| switch my family over to it if they could just understand how
| it worked.
| feanaro wrote:
| > My issue with Matrix is the philsophy attached to it.
|
| Did you mean to say Signal here instead of Matrix?
| upforgrabs wrote:
| Handing bazookas over to civilians without safety instructions
| (or a safety ops team) is a bit comical.
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(page generated 2021-06-14 23:02 UTC)