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The Freedom Phone is not great at privacy

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Re: The Freedom Phone is not great at privacy

#131

Post by dmitriid »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #115
dmitriid wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the "research" and use cases linked need blockchains or are made better by blockchains. These are quite transparent cash grabs while hype is strong.

> None of the "research" and use cases linked need blockchains or are made better by blockchains. You can read at a speed I could only wish. Kudos. And of course they don't "need" them. We don't necessarily "need" the cloud, Docker, or web frameworks either, yet here we are. Yes, there could be a new, completely open, distributed database that let multiple users monitor and inspect all historical changes, while allow…

> You can read at a speed I could only wish. Kudos.

I read the sensational headlines. They are as boring and as old as ever: it's the same "use-cases" over and over again, none of them require blockchains, and in none of them blockchain provided anything of value.

> Yes, there could be a new, completely open, distributed database that let multiple users monitor and inspect all historical changes, while allowing some others to make modifications in it.

You have just described a regular database with an open dataset.

> We could just use Cassandra and build the whole distributed identity and storage infrastructure based on it.

Yes. Yes, we could. And that's what all of those "researches" and "use cases" will inevitably end up doing: scraping "blockchain" and replacing it with MySQL, Postgres, BigQuery, Cassandra, MongoDB, sqlite etc.

Re: The Freedom Phone is not great at privacy

#132

Post by tacocataco »

andai wrote: post #56
chipotle_coyote wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem here is that "Freedom" in "FreedomPhone" does not seem to be "freedom" the way free software advocates define it, or privacy advocates define it; it seems to be "freedom" the way far-right activists use it as a dogwhistle. If people are a bit focused on the company's politics, it's because they put those politics front and center. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if there was some company d…

Re: [1] I was wondering what a phone targeting left-leaning people would look like, but I think that's pretty much just Twitter, Tumblr etc? You seem to disagree on this point, so I'd be curious to hear more.

The corporation that makes/develops the phone would be a co-op with equal ownership/profit sharing between all workers.

No capitalist would steal the surplus labor value of the workers involved in making the phone.

It would be hard to get the entire supply chain to fit this model without first creating an organization like Mondragon. [1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation

Re: The Freedom Phone is not great at privacy

#133

Post by manuelabeledo »

dmitriid wrote: post #131
manuelabeledo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> None of the "research" and use cases linked need blockchains or are made better by blockchains. You can read at a speed I could only wish. Kudos. And of course they don't "need" them. We don't necessarily "need" the cloud, Docker, or web frameworks either, yet here we are. Yes, there could be a new, completely open, distributed database that let multiple users monitor and inspect all historical changes, while allow…

> You can read at a speed I could only wish. Kudos. I read the sensational headlines. They are as boring and as old as ever: it's the same "use-cases" over and over again, none of them require blockchains, and in none of them blockchain provided anything of value. > Yes, there could be a new, completely open, distributed database that let multiple users monitor and inspect all historical changes, while allowing some…

> Yes. Yes, we could. And that's what all of those "researches" and "use cases" will inevitably end up doing: scraping "blockchain" and replacing it with MySQL, Postgres, BigQuery, Cassandra, MongoDB, sqlite etc.

I must admit that this right here was bait, because one of the storage backends used in enterprise blockchains is indeed Cassandra.

That’s part of the issue here. Blockchain technology is just something built on top of pre-existing tools, like Docker or Spring. My point is that if we were to scrap abstractions just because they could be done at a lower level already, why stop at blockchains?

Re: The Freedom Phone is not great at privacy

#134

Post by fmajid »

aaaaaaaaata wrote: post #109
fmajid wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything referencing blockchain or cryptocurrencies is a scam. That also applies to the original Signal.

As opposed to what? If referring to Session, nobody refers to it as "the other Signal", lol

Signal's tie-in with cryptocurrency MobileCoin:

https://www.wired.com/story/signal-mobilecoin-cryptocurrency...

Re: The Freedom Phone is not great at privacy

#135

Post by reilly3000 »

reilly3000 wrote: post #82
toolz wrote: post #14

Somehow with multiple comments about how embarrassing the phones association with republican organizations is, no one seems to be talking about how they backup your messaging data in a possibly insecure way and exposing peoples email address if you have an associated phone number. Surely I can't be the only one who finds it incredibly frustrating to see how many people think being republican associated is noteworthy…

Look, I’m resigned to the fact that most of the leadership and investors in most of the companies I support are voting red. It’s in their self-interest, and the majority of them are highly ranking members of the church of self-interest; acolytes of the reverend Milton Friedman. Many of the open source projects I love most for their utility and verve are built by libertarians who aren’t very amenable to paying for soc…

Quick follow up:

When I was putting together my report I found some wild stuff. I had to share this gem from their terms:

>The relationship between Federal and State Agencies, the privacy of records, and non-participation in [medical insurance]: In addition, I understand that, since the Association is protected by the 1st, 7th, 9th, and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, it is outside the [jurisdiction and authority of Federal and State Agencies and Authorities] concerning any and all complaints or grievances against the Association, and Trustee(s), members or other staff persons. All rights of complaints or grievances shall only be settled by an internal Association Committee. Therefore, for the benefit of the association and its members, I agree not to seek any remedy for relief in the [Public Domain]. I agree that my violation of any part of this membership contract would result in a [no contest legal proceeding] against me. The privacy and security of membership records maintained within the Association, which have been held to be inviolate by the U.S. Supreme Court, the undersigned member waives [HIPAA, ADA, FDA, FTC privacy rights and complaint process].

https://www.clear.software/pages/clear-companies-private-mem...

Re: The Freedom Phone is not great at privacy

#136

Post by dmitriid »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #133
dmitriid wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can read at a speed I could only wish. Kudos. I read the sensational headlines. They are as boring and as old as ever: it's the same "use-cases" over and over again, none of them require blockchains, and in none of them blockchain provided anything of value. > Yes, there could be a new, completely open, distributed database that let multiple users monitor and inspect all historical changes, while allowing some…

> Yes. Yes, we could. And that's what all of those "researches" and "use cases" will inevitably end up doing: scraping "blockchain" and replacing it with MySQL, Postgres, BigQuery, Cassandra, MongoDB, sqlite etc. I must admit that this right here was bait, because one of the storage backends used in enterprise blockchains is indeed Cassandra. That’s part of the issue here. Blockchain technology is just something buil…

> Blockchain technology is just something built on top of pre-existing tools, like Docker or Spring. My point is that if we were to scrap abstractions just because they could be done at a lower level already, why stop at blockchains

This sentence reads like it was written by GPT-3. It makes sense on the surface level, but makes no sense when you try and understand it.

Re: The Freedom Phone is not great at privacy

#137

Post by maccard »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #133
dmitriid wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can read at a speed I could only wish. Kudos. I read the sensational headlines. They are as boring and as old as ever: it's the same "use-cases" over and over again, none of them require blockchains, and in none of them blockchain provided anything of value. > Yes, there could be a new, completely open, distributed database that let multiple users monitor and inspect all historical changes, while allowing some…

> Yes. Yes, we could. And that's what all of those "researches" and "use cases" will inevitably end up doing: scraping "blockchain" and replacing it with MySQL, Postgres, BigQuery, Cassandra, MongoDB, sqlite etc. I must admit that this right here was bait, because one of the storage backends used in enterprise blockchains is indeed Cassandra. That’s part of the issue here. Blockchain technology is just something buil…

An abstraction has to offer value or solve a problem over the technology it's abstracting. Docker solves a myriad of problems that VMs and LXC have, and k8s solves a pile of problems that docker has. Blockchain's primary advantages are features that _every_ use case I've read does not want, and enterprise blockchains (from what I've seen at least) avoids those use cases by removing the features that differentiate blockchains from a normal DB.

> I must admit that this right here was bait, because one of the storage backends used in enterprise blockchains is indeed Cassandra.

That's really interesting. So is one party responsible for hosting maintaining and running that cassandra data store?

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