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

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

#181

Post by iamnotacrook »

andreb wrote: post #169
kartoffelwaffel wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

"I would have expected more concern" From the public? Everyone carries a phone, pretty much everyone is on Facebook. Given a yes/no box to tick you're going to get a lot of "yes" to "do you think you should have freedom from being tracked", but given a choice of what hardware/software to use people are going to pick the ones which everyone else is using, so that they can contact them. Next to nobody is going to stop at 4g because 5g has a higher granularity of location awareness.

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

#182

Post by fooker »

mhh__ wrote: post #80
bitcurious wrote: post #18

I just tried the app via the US App Store and it requires you to verify through SMS before use. This means that it’s neither anonymous nor fit for use in a disaster zone. Good example of software that would be better if open source.

Is there any software that would be worse when open source?

Search engines, an adversary knowing how the ranking works can manipulate(/'optimize') results seen by the users.

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

#183

Post by phs318u »

oarsinsync wrote: post #163
phs318u wrote: post #146

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…

This only applies to users who have an Apple ID registered as being in China. Hong Kong residents are not impacted by this.

For now.

The broader question is, if the Chinese state can demand this, then what (other than popular opinion) is stopping other states (with sufficient clout to meddle in Apple's markets and/or operations) from demanding the same?

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

#184

Post by thinkingemote »

kerkeslager wrote: post #179
dragonsh wrote: post #49

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…

> 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. Because they don't share your value system, and chose a better user experience over a more secure system. I want free software to win, which i…

I think the idea was that open source was more secure when it comes to communication rather than having to choose open source for ideological reasons.

Security seems like a good reason to me.

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

#185

Post by gzimhelshani »

frittig wrote: post #178
rcach001 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That happened to me as well. Can anyone explain to me how that works? Is there entire site hacked, but only triggered when coming from Google? Or does it work some other way?

I'm very confused about this as well...

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

#186

Post by hesk »

Illniyar wrote: post #123
iancarroll wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xcode is able to dynamically generate a development provisioning profile, even if you do not have a (paid) developer account. So side-loading is definitely possible, in some respects.

You need to create a developer account, learn how to use xCode (not at all trivial), and even with all that you need to reinstall it every 7 days. Effectively sideloading does not exist. The fact that 0.001 percent of people who own an iPhone can, with great effort, sideload apps is irrelevant.

You don't need a developer account anymore to sideload apps on iOS.

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

#187

Post by whoopdedo »

ukd1 wrote: post #159

The Bridgify ToS are egregious; under "Messaging Content", you grant them irrevocable rights to use your messaging content...

Are there many services that don't ask for this broad scope? I see it often and understand it comes from lawyers studying the business process and writing a contract that enables it within the Kafkaesque copyright laws. They ask for universal copying right because if you spin up a new VM you don't want to have to ask if every message you send to it has permission to be copied to this new instance. And they want it to be irrevocable because you store backups for three years and don't want to have to be constantly scrubbing them for deleted accounts.

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

#188

Post by whenchamenia »

mhh__ wrote: post #80
bitcurious wrote: post #18

I just tried the app via the US App Store and it requires you to verify through SMS before use. This means that it’s neither anonymous nor fit for use in a disaster zone. Good example of software that would be better if open source.

Is there any software that would be worse when open source?

Only those that use the widely debunked 'Security through obscurity" model. So most of it unfortunately.

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

#189

Post by kerkeslager »

thinkingemote wrote: post #184
kerkeslager wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Because they don't share your value system, and chose a better user experience over a more secure system. I want free software to win, which i…

I think the idea was that open source was more secure when it comes to communication rather than having to choose open source for ideological reasons. Security seems like a good reason to me.

Does "useability" not also seem like a good reason to you?

"Security is more important than useability" is an ideology.

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

#190

Post by m-p-3 »

newnewpdro wrote: post #134
Ar-Curunir wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For something as low latency as messaging, you can probably use proof of work for DoS resistance

Because messaging software that drains batteries is what everyone wants...

It's better than the alternative, which is no messaging.
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