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Wire – Modern Communications Network

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Re: Wire – Modern Communications Network

#261

Post by BoppreH »

graeme wrote: post #117
coldtea wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "What we need is another messaging app" said nobody, ever. The usual negative HN top post. I have to disagree. We've moved from irc, to ICQ, to Microsoft Messenger, to ..., to Skype, to (what's hot now), so somehow all those people really DID want another messaging app and even adopted one. > It looks pretty, but this is yet another app in the long list of "Skype killers" or "Voice/video/text" messaging. Most of th…

I've been in Brazil for the past five weeks. EVERYONE uses whatsapp, because SMS is expensive. And this all happened in the past couple of years or so, because that's when smartphones became widespread. I have never been asked my phone number. I've only been asked my "whatsapp". Make a good enough messaging app, and you can win an entire country. Or the world.

I'm from Brazil. You see small local businesses, with hand painted signs, where the phone number is followed by the whatsapp logo. Not even the name "whatsapp", just the logo.

It's scary how they took over communications over here.

Re: Wire – Modern Communications Network

#262

Post by iamtew »

claudius wrote: post #173
iamtew wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And no love for Sailfish OS as usual :-(

On the other hand, if it’s any good, there’ll be an open Sailfish-only app for it soon?

I doubt it. The problems with apps in Sailfish is that their appstore doesn't seem to support any payment for apps, so all the apps need to be free. I think this is maybe not giving incentive for people to actively develop on that platform unfortunately.

But perhaps someone comes up with a free app, you never know...

Re: Wire – Modern Communications Network

#264

Post by ownagefool »

sandeepspatil wrote: post #216
emn13 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One hint of whether that they've poorly implemented it is that they didn't care to choose a preexisting algorithm, or they chose a preexisting algorithm with known weaknesses, or that they chose an algorithm with fiddly parameters without addressing that. I'm much more likely to trust if various indicators suggest they're being sane, reasonable and knowledgeable.

Well, they can quote the most advanced encryption algorithm, but you still can't be sure if they have really used it unless they share their code. Bottomline: You either trust them or you don't. One reason for them not sharing the details could be that they want the potential hackers to keep guessing rather than making their life easier (No encrytion is foolproof)

Trust isn't binary.

You could perfectly well trust that they're earnest without trusting that they're competent. If that's your position, which is resonable, given enough information you can alleviate some of the competency concerns.

That said, given the landscape they're working in, it's hard to trust any commercial entity is genuinely willing and able to keep your communications secure.

Re: Wire – Modern Communications Network

#265

Post by locusm »

lmedinas wrote: post #157
LukaD wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand why they wouldn't support Linux/Blackberry/WP. As a Linux user I'm used to that. But not having windows support? Really?

For Windows probably will be the Browser extension/addon which according to other comments will be using WebRTC.

They are releasing a full Windows client soon.

Re: Wire – Modern Communications Network

#266

Post by Ridley »

FreezerburnV wrote: post #253
secfirstmd wrote: post #114

So in the age of Edward Snowden this is all they say about encryption... "Are Messages And Calls Encrypted? Yes. Wire uses industry-standard encryption on all of your Wire messages and calls." "WHAT SECURITY MEASURES DO WE TAKE TO SAFEGUARD YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? We are concerned about safeguarding the confidentiality of your information. We provide physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect infor…

Unfortunately, even if they DID specifically list out all the security measures that they used, someone would still complain because it isn't completely open source. The previous company I worked for not only had legitimate encryption for anything private we received from the user (e.g.: email passwords) so that nobody at the company could ever read them, but also had some (if I remember correctly) good documentation…

There are already FOSS replacements for Skype, such as Tox. The fact is that if every line of code can't be inspected then the software can't be considered secure, and we're forced to put blind faith in a faceless corporation, which is understandably not acceptable for many people. I don't really care if you think this is "practical" or not. That's simply the reality of the situation. Proprietary == insecure.

If a company is unable to profit off of making FOSS software then they can go ahead and keep it closed source, but they should not be claiming that their software is secure when their claims cannot be verified. That's simply dishonest, and only proves the critics right about their trustworthiness.

Re: Wire – Modern Communications Network

#267

Post by throwaway90446 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #154
lmedinas wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did they also mention their business model anywhere ? Also how the European laws protects us about anything ?

> Also how the European laws protects us about anything ? Probably more than US laws anyway.

I assume this is a joke? The US doesn't have mandatory data retention laws.

Re: Wire – Modern Communications Network

#268

Post by jusuchin »

hellbanner wrote: post #259
darklajid wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single data point: I open Skype for one occasion: Monday night, gaming with friends that - for the lack of a better term - "don't know better" (I'd prefer TeamSpeak or Mumble for Gaming - or any other voice chat that doesn't require a G+ account really). Skype is slow. Ugly. And worst of all: It shoves ads in my face on multiple levels (popups, banners etc). So far I keep it for this weekly use case, but I hope that…

Your Skype shows ads? I've never seen ads on Skype.

Mine does...

Re: Wire – Modern Communications Network

#270

Post by michaelmior »

spiritplumber wrote: post #123

Are they going to have some kind of API? I loved being able to programmatically send and read Skype messages on Android, until it stopped working. Also, will it work with Linphone?

I sure hope so. No decent API is my biggest gripe about Skype. We found Skype to be a great team chat tool although it was frustrating not being able to connect external services.
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