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Show HN: Etebase – An open source and end-to-end encrypted Firebase alternative

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Re: Show HN: Etebase – An open source and end-to-end encrypted Firebase alternative

#41

Post by tasn »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #35
tasn wrote: post #2

Excited to finally post it on HN. It's something I've been working on for the last year, though in a sense, for much longer! Etebase is an open-source SDK and backend-as-a-service for building end-to-end encrypted applications. Think Firebase but end-to-end encrypted. More users care about the privacy and security of their data every day, and encrypted applications are becoming mainstream. However, talking with devel…

I sincerely wish you luck with this. I wrote something similar, a couple of years ago[0], but it doesn't include encryption; it merely gives a place to add encryption. I didn't want to deal with the legalities of included encryption, and I think others can do far better than I (but it is quite secure, nonetheless[1]). It was really done, just to "retool" my architectural and engineering skills, as I was pivoting from…

Thank you for your kind words!

I think the encryption is the key differentiator here, at least for me. I don't want my data saved exposed on someone else's server, AKA the cloud.

Re: Show HN: Etebase – An open source and end-to-end encrypted Firebase alternative

#42

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

tasn wrote: post #41
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sincerely wish you luck with this. I wrote something similar, a couple of years ago[0], but it doesn't include encryption; it merely gives a place to add encryption. I didn't want to deal with the legalities of included encryption, and I think others can do far better than I (but it is quite secure, nonetheless[1]). It was really done, just to "retool" my architectural and engineering skills, as I was pivoting from…

Thank you for your kind words! I think the encryption is the key differentiator here, at least for me. I don't want my data saved exposed on someone else's server, AKA the cloud.

The deal with mine, is the encryption is left to the client. The server just stores a binary "thing." That "thing" can be an encrypted envelope, managed by the client[s]. Since it's a closed-loop system, then a key could be shared programmatically, outside the purview of the server.

Re: Show HN: Etebase – An open source and end-to-end encrypted Firebase alternative

#43

Post by tasn »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #42
tasn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your kind words! I think the encryption is the key differentiator here, at least for me. I don't want my data saved exposed on someone else's server, AKA the cloud.

The deal with mine, is the encryption is left to the client. The server just stores a binary "thing." That "thing" can be an encrypted envelope, managed by the client[s]. Since it's a closed-loop system, then a key could be shared programmatically, outside the purview of the server.

Yeah, in Etebase the server also just sees "things", though it tries to make it easy on the client to only get what's changed and etc.

Re: Show HN: Etebase – An open source and end-to-end encrypted Firebase alternative

#44

Post by g_p »

tasn wrote: post #19
joel_dice wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice work! I spent about six months pursuing the exact same idea about five years ago with the hope of building a company around it. I got reasonably far with a prototype, but gave up on the business side of things after doing more extensive market research and interviews. One of the people I talked to had been involved with a startup called Adrenaline Mobility which did something very similar, but ultimately ran out…

Thanks a lot! Things have indeed changed, and I feel like the public is really starting to understand the dangers with having their data exposed. I've been running EteSync for years now, and it's still growing. I'd love to have a chat with you to learn from your experience if you are willing! My email is tom at etebase, please drop me a line (or let me know how to best reach you). Thanks again!

This might be very good timing for your product - the European Data Protection Board has just out their first guidance after the Schrems II case. It seems to firmly point towards cloud services where the provider can access the data in plaintext as being "unable to have the risks mitigated" from the perspective of international transfers.

Perhaps a straightforward E2EE toolbox could help companies implement their products rapidly so they remain complaint. Clearly this won't help fix issues like Microsoft 365 or GSuite (which need access to the plaintext for email and similar), but it might help some types of SaaS to thicken up their client application and prevent the backend having access to unencrypted data, thus making the transfer permitted.

I just want to echo the above comment around how most customers don't have the knowledge to understand the benefit of this, but hopefully this is changing as we see more strict enforcement of penalties for data breaches. Data is fast becoming a liability you don't want to have the ability to see, and systems like yours offer usable solutions for those who don't understand all the technology, but need a solution.

Re: Show HN: Etebase – An open source and end-to-end encrypted Firebase alternative

#49

Post by gwking »

alexh1 wrote: post #24
LoSboccacc wrote: post #22

interesting how can user share data with each other?

I see in another comment that users have a key pair generated for them. What you can do is fetch other users public keys and encrypt data to them, or better yet, generate a symmetric key for a project and encrypt that to trusted users. It's how we did it for Portabella ( https://portabella.io ) anyway but that's not based on Etebase/Etesync, just another e2ee tool

A quick bit of feedback regarding your website: I was interested in reading the front page but ended up leaving because the “perfect for...” type and delete effect was causing the remainder of the page to jump up and down by one line every few seconds. It just happens to wrap in the wrong place on my phone.

Re: Show HN: Etebase – An open source and end-to-end encrypted Firebase alternative

#50

Post by fabrice_d »

tasn wrote: post #43
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The deal with mine, is the encryption is left to the client. The server just stores a binary "thing." That "thing" can be an encrypted envelope, managed by the client[s]. Since it's a closed-loop system, then a key could be shared programmatically, outside the purview of the server.

Yeah, in Etebase the server also just sees "things", though it tries to make it easy on the client to only get what's changed and etc.

Just curious, how does that differ from a system like Firefox sync which is also using client side encryption?
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