For multiple reasons but first of all because it would require both devices to be connected and online.
The common alternative to overcome this is to pass the messages through the server and encrypt/decrypt them on the device (aka e2e encryption). I acknowledge that might not be secure enough for certain use cases. Visit here and check https://www.bloggerzune.com/2020/06/10-Most-Important-SEO-St...
Briar Project
31–40 of 189 posts
Re: Briar Project
#32I've been looking for secure messengers during the last few weeks. I use WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. Telegram isn't very secure, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and even Signal - while very secure - requires a cell phone number... Briar seems great in this regard but isn't available on iPhone and has no support for images, calls, voice messages, etc. Apparently they're going to support images and a desktop client,…
iMessage? Natively on your phone/macOS and peer to peer encrypted. Never really saw a need for yet another messaging service. I think I'd trust Apple to do the right thing over any of these.
Great unless you or someone you want to communicate with doesn't use an apple device. Which covers the majority of the population.
I've also had terrible reliability issue with imessage in the past, messages not delivering, not showing up, errors sending, showing up on one device but not another, etc. Was a mess that caused a lot of confusion.
Re: Briar Project
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
iMessage? Natively on your phone/macOS and peer to peer encrypted. Never really saw a need for yet another messaging service. I think I'd trust Apple to do the right thing over any of these.
Great unless you or someone you want to communicate with doesn't use an apple device. Which covers the majority of the population. I've also had terrible reliability issue with imessage in the past, messages not delivering, not showing up, errors sending, showing up on one device but not another, etc. Was a mess that caused a lot of confusion.
Guess it depends on your circles. For my group, everyone has an iPhone or a Mac. For the outliers, everyone has cell phones, and iMessage supports SMS.
Re: Briar Project
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Signal is working on getting rid of the cell # requirement, but it'll take a while.
It can't happen soon enough. I installed Signal a few years ago, and the first thing it did was notify a bunch of people I had in my contacts, that I was now using Signal... ...Including the unstable frenemy-guy who was only in my contacts so I'd recognize the number if he called and I'd know not to answer... ....who immediately PM'd me on Signal to push his latest delusion and make sure I didn't disagree. Great, jus…
I understand your frustration, but Signal didn't notify your contacts because you installed it. It notified the other person, because he had your phone number.
Your local Signal installation regularly checks if any of your contacts (with the phone numbers you have of them) are registered at the Signal servers - and then lets you know it, such that you can text this contact securely.
Re: Briar Project
#35In an authoritarian regime with large masses of human and technological resources determined to have control over its population, nothing is really secure. Sending a message that can't be read by a third party? You're suspect. Have an illegal app installed on your registered "report to big brother" phone? Expect an unfriendly visit by big brother police. Don't have a "big brother" phone? There are various ways of sniffing you out.
The bottom line is that while technology can help in the process, technology can't bring freedom from oppressing regimes. That is only achieved when a synchronised, large enough collection of people feel that they are willing to change things even at great personal risk. Authoritarian regimes know this, and thus put a lot of effort into using fear of consequences to suppress any hint of such development.
Re: Briar Project
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great unless you or someone you want to communicate with doesn't use an apple device. Which covers the majority of the population. I've also had terrible reliability issue with imessage in the past, messages not delivering, not showing up, errors sending, showing up on one device but not another, etc. Was a mess that caused a lot of confusion.
Guess it depends on your circles. For my group, everyone has an iPhone or a Mac. For the outliers, everyone has cell phones, and iMessage supports SMS.
>iMessage supports SMS.
Which isn't end to end encrypted which defeats the whole point in terms of this conversation.
Re: Briar Project
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pidgin is exactly what we need.. and each messenger needs to be a pluggable module. Then we dont need to hound friends and family to switch messenger apps they just use pidgin.
But why would something like Facebook open up their walled garden? Does it even count as a walled garden when you have 2 billion people on the platform?
the walls i think refer to transparency ?
so is regardless of user count
Re: Briar Project
#38In an authoritarian regime with large masses of human and technological resources determined to have control over its population, nothing is really secure. Sending a message that can't be read by a third party? You're suspect. Have an illegal app installed on your registered "report to big brother" phone? Expect an unfriendly visit by big brother police. Don't have a "big brother" phone? There are various ways of sni…
If only Google and Apple would make a fully end to end encrypted chatting platform to take place of SMS that is fully federated and not controlled by a single entity, something the likes of Signal could support / join in on and other chat apps. When you turn crypto into something the masses use seamlessly it gets a little more complicated to figure out who the suspects are. Also default to not synching to the cloud, and explain why syncing to the cloud could be compromised.
Re: Briar Project
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pidgin is exactly what we need.. and each messenger needs to be a pluggable module. Then we dont need to hound friends and family to switch messenger apps they just use pidgin.
But why would something like Facebook open up their walled garden? Does it even count as a walled garden when you have 2 billion people on the platform?
Obviously yes.
Does any wall count if there are more entities on one side of it than the other?
Re: Briar Project
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because: a) Often the intended recipient isn't online when the message is sent, and it may happen that there is never a time when both sender and recipient are online simultaneously (e.g. sender's device only turns on to send the occasional message, receiver's device is usually off but turns on occasionally to check if there are messages) b) Often one or both devices can only connect to, but can't be connected to (be…
Is IPv6 likely to be a practical solution to the router/NAT issue? Are routers assigning globally-routable IPs to their clients, is that already a thing?
> Are routers assigning globally-routable IPs to their clients, is that already a thing?
Yes, but a sensible router will also firewall all incoming connections unless the port is explicitly opened.