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Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

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161–170 of 221 posts

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#161

Hi everybody, I'm Jorge, founder of Bridgefy. Happy to answer any questions!

Hi Jorge, fyi I just browsed for Bridgefy on google and clicked on the first link that showed up and some random page turned up. It looked like it was hacked or something.

Same here, glad to know I'm not the only one.

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#162

No closed source mesh networking can be secure. However good user experience it has. They are no different than using WhatsApp. Indeed in that respect at least Signal is better. I am not sure why protestors did not adopt the open source serval mesh project apk and ios app. [1] In Hong Kong given the density of building it's bit hard to have a line of sight, so it will still be hard to build a local network. But it's…

You can use PGP encrypted messages over any network to be secure.

It is my impression that the Party is not shy to use rubber hose cryptanalysis, so you better make sure to stay anonymous. That is quite hard with PGP.

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#163
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think China getting that information from Apple is sort of a second-order concern at this point. In a more stable situation, yeah, you don't want the police to have a reason to knock on your door. When you're gearing up to go protest in public and the cops are dropping tear gas on everybody, those sorts of lists are less important. Not saying that it doesn't matter, but there is no such thing as absolute security,…

Keep in mind that Apple's iCloud services in China are not actually provided by Apple. They are provided by Cloud Big Data Industrial Development Co., Ltd., and allows Apple to, "continue to improve iCloud services in China mainland and comply with Chinese regulations". [0] This service even has different terms of service, than the standard iCloud offering (though I haven't done a diff to see what's changed). The eff…

This only applies to users who have an Apple ID registered as being in China.

Hong Kong residents are not impacted by this.

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that Apple's iCloud services in China are not actually provided by Apple. They are provided by Cloud Big Data Industrial Development Co., Ltd., and allows Apple to, "continue to improve iCloud services in China mainland and comply with Chinese regulations". [0] This service even has different terms of service, than the standard iCloud offering (though I haven't done a diff to see what's changed). The eff…

Anybody have some details on this? I always wondered how this is handled for Chinese going abroad or Foreigners traveling in China without sending the keys back and forth. Or do Chinese iCloud accounts still use the Chinese servers even when abroad while the western ones get to go through the great firewall for western iCloud?

that is an extremely interesting question, both from a technical and juridical point of view. Hope someone will ask apple about this in a more official channel.

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that Apple's iCloud services in China are not actually provided by Apple. They are provided by Cloud Big Data Industrial Development Co., Ltd., and allows Apple to, "continue to improve iCloud services in China mainland and comply with Chinese regulations". [0] This service even has different terms of service, than the standard iCloud offering (though I haven't done a diff to see what's changed). The eff…

Anybody have some details on this? I always wondered how this is handled for Chinese going abroad or Foreigners traveling in China without sending the keys back and forth. Or do Chinese iCloud accounts still use the Chinese servers even when abroad while the western ones get to go through the great firewall for western iCloud?

This is effectively documented in the link provided:

> If you are not a Chinese citizen residing in China mainland, you can edit the country or region setting of your Apple ID to reflect your current country or region and continue using iCloud under Apple's current terms and conditions.

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#166

No closed source mesh networking can be secure. However good user experience it has. They are no different than using WhatsApp. Indeed in that respect at least Signal is better. I am not sure why protestors did not adopt the open source serval mesh project apk and ios app. [1] In Hong Kong given the density of building it's bit hard to have a line of sight, so it will still be hard to build a local network. But it's…

You can use PGP encrypted messages over any network to be secure.

No forward secrecy.

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#167
post #158
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone know the reason(s) why Apple makes it impractical to sideload?

Side loading is a threat to Apples control over all iOS and similar AppStore devices. If I didn’t want to comply with the very far-reaching requirements for e g in-app stores, I could just ask my users to side load my app. If for example Audible did this, it’d be a real threat.

Chief among this is the requirement that all in-app purchases have a 30% tax by apple.

Which is why you can't buy books in the kindle ios app[0] among others.

[0]https://www.techspot.com/article/1597-how-to-buy-kindle-book...

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#168
post #133

No closed source mesh networking can be secure. However good user experience it has. They are no different than using WhatsApp. Indeed in that respect at least Signal is better. I am not sure why protestors did not adopt the open source serval mesh project apk and ios app. [1] In Hong Kong given the density of building it's bit hard to have a line of sight, so it will still be hard to build a local network. But it's…

Something works, it helps their protests admist disruption of telecom. Appreciate that please. Not everything needs to be technical. More we speak of tech, more morale we loose.

We can support what works today, while commenting on its shortfalls to raise awareness and build better, more secure solutions for tomorrow.

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#169
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This still creates a detectable pattern. If the legit phone goes off while the burner is on that's a pattern. If the legit phone goes off and (travel time / distance) elapses before burner appears (travel time / distance) away from the last legit ping that's a pattern. If the legit phone and burner phone hit the same towers at the same time more than 3 times that's a pattern. If the burner phone spends most of the ti…

If you think it's bad now, wait until 5G rolls out allowing live tracking of people to within meters.

Is this baked in to the infrastructure so you can be located or baked into the phone so you can locate yourself? If the former, I would have expected more concern?

Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app

#170
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Serval isn't in the App Store yet?

I believe that's the point. You need to download the APK or whatever IOS provides for developer packages. This means less tracking from the vendor (Google, Apple)

Google knows and logs forever every app you start on your device doesn't matter if installed from Google Play or not.
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