151–160 of 289 posts
ACAB
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Dutch government is also often terrible at managing IT projects. It seems an industry has evolved to game the public procurement rules required by the EU. Those companies just leech money for never-ending IT projects that tend to be over budget, over time, and working poorly.
at least the Dutch sites work. try a post communist country gov site and you'll start appreciating it right away.
I mean, we've got this nice secure login system for government sites: DigiD, which works fine. So you need that to submit your taxes. A few years ago, it turned out you needed any valid DigiD to submit your taxes, not necessarily your own. There are tons of other sites that cost many millions, and resulted in an atrocious user experience. And some projects simply failed after going way over budget.
As an EU citizen I think that's a great decision.
Is there no open source or European alternative? Just keep relying on some Californian dude that insist i give him my and my friends phone numbers? And harass me so i give him more info to “personalize my profile” !?
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Having worked at a company in public procurement I would say that matches my experience. I would say we were relatively honest compared to some of our competitors, but there were almost no incentives for us developers to do a good job other than our personal morals and everyone including us were more or less gaming the system. I hated working there because I felt like a parasite just making the world worse. The in-ho…
This story is fascinating, do you know where I can read more about public procurement?
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Is there no open source or European alternative? Just keep relying on some Californian dude that insist i give him my and my friends phone numbers? And harass me so i give him more info to “personalize my profile” !?
How does he harass you?!
- There is a fixed pop under at the bottom of the screen asking me to confirm my profile name, with “Get Started” or “remind me later” (which is apparently every time i come back to the app), and no “never“ option. I had already put a first name but that’s not good enough. Had to do it again to confirm i don’t want to share a last name with him / them.
- why does he care about the distinction between a “first name” (mandatory) and “Last Name” (optional)
-> Only the user should care about the name.
=> Why should the app / he / them get access to my contacts list to update a contact name? I’m perfectly willing to have duplicate contacts siloed in a “secure messaging app”.
Also, could someone explain why the app need phone numbers ? They only send some initial token over SMS, which can be spoofed.
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My understanding is that US Senators already use it. At least there was a headline on HN ages back. The main issue with apps like Signal in my opinion comes from apps that snoop on your screen. I wouldnt be surprised if there are rogue custom keyboards that do this. I would be more worried if only communist / socialist nations (you all know the ones I am talking about, not sure of a better name so calling them what t…
> "communist / socialist nations (you all know the ones I am talking about, not sure of a better name so calling them what they claim to be)" "Totalitarian" would be a better word, I think. This isn't specific to economic systems, it's about governments wanting to control the communication of their citizens (or subjects, I guess). > "If the NSA advises against Signal that might be another concern. It might mean a for…
Totalitarian is probably closer to the word I was trying to think of.
[2]: https://threema.ch/en/transparencyreport
Edit: Formatting
How is something that's tied to your phone number "secure"? The communications are encrypted, but my identity is public.
Security is not the same thing as anonymity. Maybe Signal's design goals just don't align with your requirements, and that's okay. But that doesn't mean that it can't be the right tool for people with a different set of requirements.
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France developed their own matrix protocol based network called tchap. Great idea for a nation that wants to stay independent in an increasingly american/chinese tech dependent world.
Ah yes, I'd forgotten about that - https://medium.com/@fs0c131y/tchap-the-super-not-secure-app-...
It does not really say that the app is "super not secure". Just that people make mistakes, and it's not even shameful the way they reacted to it.