Privacy

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Opinion on the Matrix protocol (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 weeks ago by foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Is matrix good to use, seen a lot of drama around it. For example hackliberty.org left it because of lacking of security and moderation, do you still recommended it?

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[–] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

encryption regularly breaks in weird ways, usually you see a message that you can’t read

This was once common, but it's somewhat rare now in my experience, and the upcoming Matrix 2.0 apparently addresses most (all?) of the remaining causes.

if you enable encryption in a chat room you cannot disable it

I consider this a good thing, for the sake of the people who joined or wrote in the chat with the understanding that what they write is and will remain encrypted. If you want to abandon encryption, you can always create a new room.

we now have two official clients for Android (Element and Element X) in the first one encryption breaks in weird ways, in the later there is no way to use Spaces properly

No, there is one officially released client for android: Element. Element X is in beta. When it leaves beta, it will take over as the one officially released client.

direct messages between people don’t work well - it is like they are a room with the two people

It works well for me. How is it a problem for you? It looks just like the person-to-person chats on other platforms I use, including SMS.

privacy wise matrix is weak,

Privacy of message content is not weak at all.

leaks metadata,

It's true that some metadata can be read by admins of the servers that have been invited into a chat. Given all the features that Matrix uniquely offers, that's an acceptable tradeoff for many of us. Also, the developers have stated that moving most of that metadata to the encrypted channel is planned.

attachments are not encrypted, etc.

This is just plain false.

https://spec.matrix.org/latest/client-server-api/#sending-encrypted-attachments

[–] rrobin@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

This was once common, but it’s somewhat rare now in my experience, and the upcoming Matrix 2.0 apparently addresses most (all?) of the remaining causes.

I still see it - usual case is when someone has two clients. One of them will have issues with this.

I consider this a good thing, for the sake of the people who joined or wrote in the chat with the understanding that what they write is and will remain encrypted. If you want to abandon encryption, you can always create a new room.

Disabling encryption in the room did not have to mean decrypt past history. Yes you can create a new room. But for big groups who wants to risk it. The room admins I know steer clear of encrypted group chats because of the previous issue.

No, there is one officially released client for android: Element. Element X is in beta. When it leaves beta, it will take over as the one officially released client.

One would never guess based on the release announcement

This is just plain false.

https://spec.matrix.org/latest/client-server-api/#sending-encrypted-attachments

The docs say it clearly "If encryption is enabled". Otherwise attachments are just a link, nothing special there.