161–170 of 353 posts
This feels like something Apple should do with iPhones. Find My and air tags was already a huge success because of the ubiquitous nature of iPhones. Apple could add this to iPhone, sell it as privacy focussed. Let you message anyone in your iMessage contacts with a new bubble colour. Propagate over Bluetooth when you don't have internet. I can see a snazzy Apple reveal for this showcasing it's use on a cruise ship, i…
This feels like something Apple should do with iPhones. Find My and air tags was already a huge success because of the ubiquitous nature of iPhones. Apple could add this to iPhone, sell it as privacy focussed. Let you message anyone in your iMessage contacts with a new bubble colour. Propagate over Bluetooth when you don't have internet. I can see a snazzy Apple reveal for this showcasing it's use on a cruise ship, i…
Google BT Chat. Android B Chat. Google Relay.
And Microsoft can get on board, too. With Microsoft Teams Decentralised For School and Work.
Hopefully, the browser Bluetooth API will receive more support ( https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Bluetoo... ). Web-based PWAs are more suitable because apps are subject to app store censorship.
One missing feature: deferred message propagation. As far as I understand, while messages will be rebroadcast until a TTL is exhausted, there is no mechanism to retain in-transit messages and retransmit them to future peers. While this adds overheads, it's table stakes for real-life usage. You should be able to write a message and not rely on the recipient being available when you press send. You should also be able…
Is the issue with this that mobile OSs - iOS in particular are rather aggressive about shutting down apps in the background after a while?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lack of retention can actually be a feature in these types of situations. It should be opt-in. The government would actually need to infiltrate the network in order to read the conversations, instead of just retrieving the messages from the cache on a confiscated phone
I'd consider end-to-end encryption to also be table-stakes, at least opportunistically after the first message in each direction. With encryption cached messages are far less harmful (though still leaking very useful metadata), without encryption it seems almost trivial to spy on any communications
This feels like something Apple should do with iPhones. Find My and air tags was already a huge success because of the ubiquitous nature of iPhones. Apple could add this to iPhone, sell it as privacy focussed. Let you message anyone in your iMessage contacts with a new bubble colour. Propagate over Bluetooth when you don't have internet. I can see a snazzy Apple reveal for this showcasing it's use on a cruise ship, i…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of these bluetooth messaging app was made by a developer who was on a cruise ship with family, and the Internet over satellite costs an arm and leg. So he wrote an app to communicate with his families over bluetooth. Also why would one want to have the data go over some servers thousands miles away when the device is right next to you? Seems like bluetooth is the perfect way to communicate for devices that are cl…
Still, wouldn't a wifi meshnet be a better choice for these scenario's?
I imagine in a situation like Iran, carrying a backpack full of WiFi gear to stay connected to the meshnet is a red flag.
Establishing a bunch of base stations is likely to raise red flags too.
It's pretty trivial for a nation-state that is jamming GPS to go around and jam WiFi or analyze WiFi spectrum for a meshnet operating in and around a protest area.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lack of retention can actually be a feature in these types of situations. It should be opt-in. The government would actually need to infiltrate the network in order to read the conversations, instead of just retrieving the messages from the cache on a confiscated phone
> instead of just retrieving the messages from the cache on a confiscated phone why wouldn't encryption be a part of recipe here rendering government acquisition of such a cache moot?
If you want to protect older messages you can have the user enter a passphrase when they are in a physically safe situation. But that is only really practical for media like email. Good for organizing the protest but perhaps not so great at the protest.