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Large-Scale Abuse of Contact Discovery in Mobile Messengers [pdf]

ndss-symposium.org

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Re: Large-Scale Abuse of Contact Discovery in Mobile Messengers [pdf]

#201

Post by feanaro »

kitkat_new wrote: post #190
feanaro wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they mean is that there is a client/server separation. Truly decentralised systems don't have this distinction and only have communicating nodes. Though this is coming to Matrix too.

Seems arbitrary as clearly Matrix is decentralized despite having client/server separation.

If you think about it in terms of network topology, you'll see it's not completely arbitrary. In fact, the long-term plan for Matrix is to explicitly support the fully decentralized topology by using Dendrite, where a client wouldn't need to connect to a dedicated server at all. Instead, each client is also a server.

Re: Large-Scale Abuse of Contact Discovery in Mobile Messengers [pdf]

#202

Post by hansel_der »

strogonoff wrote: post #26
hansel_der wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

on ios if one does not grant addressbook permission for the app: * telegram uses an "internal" contact list for which one can add contacts via the desktop client and then works as expected. * whatsapp let's the user freely initiate contact by phone numbers, but then only shows the number (no name). don't know about signal.

WhatsApp on iOS cripples user experience without access to OS contact list. You cannot create groups, and cannot initiate a chat with anyone, even by phone number. It works if someone else messages you first or adds you to a group.

> cannot initiate a chat with anyone, even by phone number

as stated before, i can initiate convo by number just fine. it's just that i can't edit the identifier/handle and so it's always shown by number. thankfully most ppl have set their profile pic public, but it gets messy pretty fast.

Re: Large-Scale Abuse of Contact Discovery in Mobile Messengers [pdf]

#203

Post by strogonoff »

hansel_der wrote: post #202
strogonoff wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WhatsApp on iOS cripples user experience without access to OS contact list. You cannot create groups, and cannot initiate a chat with anyone, even by phone number. It works if someone else messages you first or adds you to a group.

> cannot initiate a chat with anyone, even by phone number as stated before, i can initiate convo by number just fine. it's just that i can't edit the identifier/handle and so it's always shown by number. thankfully most ppl have set their profile pic public, but it gets messy pretty fast.

I can’t, care to share the way you do that purely within WhatsApp for iOS without a jailbreak?

Re: Large-Scale Abuse of Contact Discovery in Mobile Messengers [pdf]

#204

Post by hansel_der »

strogonoff wrote: post #203
hansel_der wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cannot initiate a chat with anyone, even by phone number as stated before, i can initiate convo by number just fine. it's just that i can't edit the identifier/handle and so it's always shown by number. thankfully most ppl have set their profile pic public, but it gets messy pretty fast.

I can’t, care to share the way you do that purely within WhatsApp for iOS without a jailbreak?

in the "Chats" tab there is an "edit" icon in the top right (rectangle with a pen in it).

Re: Large-Scale Abuse of Contact Discovery in Mobile Messengers [pdf]

#205

Post by egberts1 »

anticensor wrote: post #156
egberts1 wrote: post #65

Imagine my surprise when one can actually give up MORE revealing information about yourself and your contacts just by installing BOTH Telegram and Signal apps. Signal: when you’re most concerned about privacy of your message content. Telegram: when you’re most concerned about association with contacts. WhatsApp: when you’re most concerned about losing your ability to reach out and contact someone. Nothing is absolute…

Matrix: when you are most concerned about losing your message history.

which is probably the best sweet spot any privacy fan can aim for.

Re: Large-Scale Abuse of Contact Discovery in Mobile Messengers [pdf]

#206

Post by strogonoff »

hansel_der wrote: post #204
strogonoff wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t, care to share the way you do that purely within WhatsApp for iOS without a jailbreak?

in the "Chats" tab there is an "edit" icon in the top right (rectangle with a pen in it).

Well I’ll be darned. They must have changed that recently or I didn’t update WhatsApp for a while, it definitely used to lead to a non-ideal state screen fairly recently. Props for the pointer!
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