Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS • Hacker News Board

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#51

Post by alsdifu3 » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 2:41 PM UTC

blfr wrote: post #35

junto wrote: post #31

We don’t want the state-run telcos in Saudi, Iran, Bahrain, Belarus, China, Egypt, Cuba, USA, etc… to have direct access to the metadata of TextSecure users in those countries or anywhere else. Sad to see that the 'land of the free' has become bundled (in a relatively short period of time) into a category of oppressive states that have little or no respect for the privacy of its citizens.

Do people really think that having your texts read is comparably oppressive to living in Belarus?

No one said that except you. Nice rhetorical strategy. Moxie said 'state-run telcos'. Which is accurate.

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#52

Post by pyre » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 2:44 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #43

proveanegative wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this bundling as a deliberate rhetorical/political move. You could have bundled the US with other surveillance-happy Western nations such as Australia or the UK, which as far as I understand do not behave in a qualitatively different manner.

Not only do the UK, Australia, or Canada and New Zealand for that matter, not behave qualitatively differently, but as the "Five Eyes" surveillance states, they'll spy on one another's citizens (and occasionally their own) for one another, effectively gutting any legislative prohibitions on domestic surveillance. https://plus.google.com/u/0/104092656004159577193/posts/2ncB... Tipped off to me by SoftwareMaven here at…

Said information shared was found illegal in the UK recently.

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#53

Post by jugbee » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 3:19 PM UTC

Well that's disappointing. I have worked hard inviting my friends to textsecure, i used to tell them: "Textsecure is just a simple text messaging app but with encryption, why not to change your default one to this, what do you have to lose, you still can message all the others." Now, however, it's not going to be a simple text messaging app anymore, but just another Whatsapp + real crypto. Which is going to make wayyyy harder to convince new friends to switch. I can already hear them saying "why do i need this? it does use data, and i have facebook messenger, viber and whatsapp where all of my other friends are. Why do have to download this too for you alone"

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#54

Post by jugbee » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 3:24 PM UTC

zobzu wrote: post #17

its been kind of nice to have textsecure as an option when internet is not available (which sadly happens a lot especially for travelers...) I understand the decision is, again, for the greater good, but I can't help to think it's going to leave a hole.

aggree 100%. Now all the features why I have downloaded textsecure back in the day, was to have strong crypto while traveling abroad (which is rather frequent), not to hide my metadata

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#55

Post by shawn-furyan » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 3:38 PM UTC

jugbee wrote: post #53

Well that's disappointing. I have worked hard inviting my friends to textsecure, i used to tell them: "Textsecure is just a simple text messaging app but with encryption, why not to change your default one to this, what do you have to lose, you still can message all the others." Now, however, it's not going to be a simple text messaging app anymore, but just another Whatsapp + real crypto. Which is going to make wayy…

TextSecure is getting rid of ENCRYPTED SMS/MMS, not SMS/MMS capability all together. So from a lay-person's perspective, I don't see what the major change is. They can still use TextSecure as their texting app, while occasionally being able to communicate securely with contacts that also use TextSecure Protocol clients. SMS/MMS just isn't being used as a secure transport anymore.

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#56

Post by dredmorbius » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 3:38 PM UTC

pyre wrote: post #52

dredmorbius wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only do the UK, Australia, or Canada and New Zealand for that matter, not behave qualitatively differently, but as the "Five Eyes" surveillance states, they'll spy on one another's citizens (and occasionally their own) for one another, effectively gutting any legislative prohibitions on domestic surveillance. https://plus.google.com/u/0/104092656004159577193/posts/2ncB... Tipped off to me by SoftwareMaven here at…

Said information shared was found illegal in the UK recently.

Source?

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#57

Post by zentrus » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 3:39 PM UTC

Very disappointing. In various parts of the world, data is not always available and SMS is. :(

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#58

Post by ericfontaine » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 3:51 PM UTC

jackbravo wrote: post #5

Lack of GCM was one of their primary reasons for not providing an APK for TextSecure for users who don't use Google Play (like users with CyanogenMod). - https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure/issues/127 - http://support.whispersystems.org/customer/portal/articles/1... Hopefully that option will be available soon.

I'm one of those people who used to use text secure, but didn't like installing google or cyanogenmon on my phone. So I would always have to self compile, but gave up recently cause I don't have any friends to text secure with :(

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#59

Post by jugbee » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 3:55 PM UTC

shawn-furyan wrote: post #55

jugbee wrote: post #53

Well that's disappointing. I have worked hard inviting my friends to textsecure, i used to tell them: "Textsecure is just a simple text messaging app but with encryption, why not to change your default one to this, what do you have to lose, you still can message all the others." Now, however, it's not going to be a simple text messaging app anymore, but just another Whatsapp + real crypto. Which is going to make wayy…

TextSecure is getting rid of ENCRYPTED SMS/MMS, not SMS/MMS capability all together. So from a lay-person's perspective, I don't see what the major change is. They can still use TextSecure as their texting app, while occasionally being able to communicate securely with contacts that also use TextSecure Protocol clients. SMS/MMS just isn't being used as a secure transport anymore.

"occasionally being able to communicate securely with contacts that also use TextSecure Protocol clients."

"Occasionally" is not what I desire. Being abroad and not being able to use data due to huge roaming fees leaves me vulnerable something like 80-90days a year. Leaking metadata is still better than leaking the contents which is why I'm feeling rather skeptical about this decision

Re: Saying goodbye to encrypted SMS/MMS

#60

Post by drdaeman » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 4:00 PM UTC

For me, an year ago, TextSecure's primary selling point was that it wasn't reinventing the wheel, but was layering above the already existing network. Something very resembling how one installs an OTR plugin for their XMPP client, except for being an app (since, unfortunately, I have yet to see an mobile messaging app with a sane plugin system).

I've perceived their own proprietary data transport as progressive enhancement that enables to cut the costs, not as a primary option. I.e. SMS transport being the core option, not a fallback. Personally, haven't bothered to use data transport at all - it was unable to handle multiple identities anyway.

Sadly, I was mistaken.