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Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

whispersystems.org

11–20 of 32 posts

Re: Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

#11

I'm trying it out now. Took 5min+ to sync my 180 calendar events and is taking forever (it seems right now) to sync my 1000+ contacts. I will try out for 30 day free trial, but I will only be paying the $5 yearly subscription if they allow distribution on the F-Droid repository since I prefer to not have Google Play on my phone. Open Whisper Systems has been frustratingly adamant about not wanting to distribute TextS…

Update: killed flock, restarted flock, pressed sync now, and was still stuck at like 2%progress for syncing contacts. Then rebooted my phone and made coffee. Opened flock, pressed sync now, and almost immediately reported everythinng's good and last sync was a second ago.

Re: Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

#12

Great stuff. This is important work to get everything end-to-end encrypted. Any updates on how the integrated messaging up is coming along, and whether we're still getting a desktop app/extension soon, too? I'd love for nothing else than to give up using Hangouts, but I use it a lot to talk to people from my computer to their phones, and right now apps like Whatsapp or TextSecure are no go for that. Hopefully there w…

WhisperSystems are working on a web based TextSecure https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure-Browser

Re: Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

#13

I'm trying it out now. Took 5min+ to sync my 180 calendar events and is taking forever (it seems right now) to sync my 1000+ contacts. I will try out for 30 day free trial, but I will only be paying the $5 yearly subscription if they allow distribution on the F-Droid repository since I prefer to not have Google Play on my phone. Open Whisper Systems has been frustratingly adamant about not wanting to distribute TextS…

[deleted]

Re: Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

#14

I'm trying it out now. Took 5min+ to sync my 180 calendar events and is taking forever (it seems right now) to sync my 1000+ contacts. I will try out for 30 day free trial, but I will only be paying the $5 yearly subscription if they allow distribution on the F-Droid repository since I prefer to not have Google Play on my phone. Open Whisper Systems has been frustratingly adamant about not wanting to distribute TextS…

The F-Droid thing will certainly will not happen.

Moxie, one of the core developers of the WhispherCore products, had a pretty argumentative debate on their forum and his own Github issues regarding their repackging of his software TextSecure. It was subsequently removed, due to his indirect request (he went so far as to say he did not approve, but did not directly instruct them to do so). Despite their workflow and licensing, he believed it to be a step backwards in security as he takes issue with phone rooting and other things (if I recall correctly).

Long story short, it is a safe guess you will not see any WhisperCore products on F-Droid anytime soon. Moxie et al. say compile and patch yourself, or use the Play Store (for the faint of heart).

One reference here:

https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure/issues/281#issu...

UPDATE: Maybe I missed something entirely as you mentioned your obvious knowledge of the F-Droid spat. Will leave it here for others though. Clumsy reading on my part, sorry.

Re: Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

#15
post #9
post #3

1. Do I disable Google Sync services (gmail, cal, and contacts) and replace it with Flock? 2. Is my contact list and cal events empty until I enter a password to unlock them?

1. You can replace your Google sync account with Flock if you choose. You can import data from a Google account into your Flock account without destroying or altering the data in your Google account. 2. The Flock encryption is used for transmitting data to/from the server. On the device, we let the Android permission system take over from there, so you don't have to enter a password in order to see your contact or ca…

Thank you for the answers, going to install it and try it out!

Re: Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

#16
I love that there are creative artistic people out there that care about privacy and owning your own data. There are tons of great apps out there that basically do this like CalDAV/CardDAV sync [1][2], but they aren't beautiful like this one.

I like beautiful design, especially on my phone but I like owning my data even more. This is truely a great product.

Edit: I see this is encrypted as well. I really need to dive into this! Cool beans!

[1]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.cardd... [2]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.calda...

Re: Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

#17
I've had mixed success with CalDAV connectors for Android and a self-hosted server. The apps that I bought didn't support self-made certificates very well, or not at all (certificate pinning would be ideal).

The best way was to create a new CA certificate and use that to sign the server cert. But after installing the new CA cert on Android, I got a non-removable notification that my calls and data might be monitored. I did this on the train to a "hacker" congress, imagine how surprised I was about the warning...

Can anybody recommend a CalDAV/CardDAV server? What does the hosted Flock service use?

Re: Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

#18
post #14

I'm trying it out now. Took 5min+ to sync my 180 calendar events and is taking forever (it seems right now) to sync my 1000+ contacts. I will try out for 30 day free trial, but I will only be paying the $5 yearly subscription if they allow distribution on the F-Droid repository since I prefer to not have Google Play on my phone. Open Whisper Systems has been frustratingly adamant about not wanting to distribute TextS…

The F-Droid thing will certainly will not happen. Moxie, one of the core developers of the WhispherCore products, had a pretty argumentative debate on their forum and his own Github issues regarding their repackging of his software TextSecure. It was subsequently removed, due to his indirect request (he went so far as to say he did not approve, but did not directly instruct them to do so). Despite their workflow and…

Yup. I'm one of those that has to recompile text secure whenever there is an update. I'm hoping once F-Droid implements auto reinstall of updated apps, then moxie will permit builds on F-Droid.

Point of correctness: F-Droid does not require root privileges to install, just that user allows "untrusted" sources in android settings. Most F-Droid apps don't require root privileges. Google play on the other hand is full of malware.

Re: Flock, Private Contact and Calendar Cloud Sync for Android

#19
post #17

I've had mixed success with CalDAV connectors for Android and a self-hosted server. The apps that I bought didn't support self-made certificates very well, or not at all (certificate pinning would be ideal). The best way was to create a new CA certificate and use that to sign the server cert. But after installing the new CA cert on Android, I got a non-removable notification that my calls and data might be monitored.…

I have radicale installed on my server with a self-signed certificate. It stores data in standardized clear-text files and has good documentation on how to setup all sorts of clients.

I highly recommend it.

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