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Firefox add-on to add OTR encryption to web-based chats

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11–16 of 16 posts

Re: Firefox add-on to add OTR encryption to web-based chats

#11
post #10

I wish I had more friends that would actually use OTR...

I think the biggest problem is client support, and that some people prefer using multiple devices for chat, including web based services (GMail, Facebook Chat etc). Even with Jabber where you can have separate resources, it's not possible to have some clients use OTR and some not (with good reason, I guess), so you either have to add a separate, non-OTR account, or get used to turning OTR on and off manually. And I'm…

I have a solution to this problem. For all of my IM'ing I use several IRC clients. I point them all at a single Bitlbee server which gates from IRC to various IM networks. I use the Bitlbee OTR plugin and assign each network its own OTR key. So no matter what IRC client I am using, I always have the same OTR key.

Re: Firefox add-on to add OTR encryption to web-based chats

#12
post #6

I want this for general posts on Facebook!

OTR is only suitable for real time communication. For posting messages on facebook (as for email) you would use PGP. This used to be possible using Firefox with the FireGPG Addon, but the developer stopped working on it and a release wasn't even made for Firefox 4.

FireGPG was brilliant. It would detect blocks of PGP in the page, and add "Decrypt/Verify" links to the appropriate place in the page, and would let you easily encrypt/sign data. I can't believe nobody took over development. I keep meaning to learn how to write Firefox addons specifically so I can take up this project, but I haven't found the time.

Re: Firefox add-on to add OTR encryption to web-based chats

#13
Related to this. Some of you may remember "Kik" being launched last year. There were quite a few discussions about it here. Anyway, I set up an OTR feature request on their GetSatisfaction page a while ago. If you're using Kik and want OTR support, vote it up:

http://getsatisfaction.com/kik/topics/otr_for_private_conver...

I also set up one calling for SSL at the same time:

http://getsatisfaction.com/kik/topics/secure_kik_with_encryp...

That ones been implemented now though. Kik 5.0 came out a little over a month ago and had SSL support, but didn't do certificate verification. Kik 5.1 came out a few days ago and now finally has working certificate verification.

Re: Firefox add-on to add OTR encryption to web-based chats

#14
post #6

I want this for general posts on Facebook!

OTR is only suitable for real time communication. For posting messages on facebook (as for email) you would use PGP. This used to be possible using Firefox with the FireGPG Addon, but the developer stopped working on it and a release wasn't even made for Firefox 4. FireGPG was brilliant. It would detect blocks of PGP in the page, and add "Decrypt/Verify" links to the appropriate place in the page, and would let you e…

But PGP gives the wrong guarantees.

Re: Firefox add-on to add OTR encryption to web-based chats

#15
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTR is only suitable for real time communication. For posting messages on facebook (as for email) you would use PGP. This used to be possible using Firefox with the FireGPG Addon, but the developer stopped working on it and a release wasn't even made for Firefox 4. FireGPG was brilliant. It would detect blocks of PGP in the page, and add "Decrypt/Verify" links to the appropriate place in the page, and would let you e…

But PGP gives the wrong guarantees.

Yes and no. Depending on what "guarantees" you're looking for.

Re: Firefox add-on to add OTR encryption to web-based chats

#16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But PGP gives the wrong guarantees.

Yes and no. Depending on what "guarantees" you're looking for.

If the author of the root comment wants something like "OTR for Facebook" they probably wouldn't like the guarantees that PGP gives.

But Facebook and privacy don't mix anyway.

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