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Circles: a privacy-first social app for connecting with people you actually know (peertube.futo.org)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[-] [email protected] 43 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Anyone have a TL;DR?

This sounds like you’d have to spend a lot of time managing it and that you’d have to trust the people you know for it to be private.

My rule has always been: everything should be done anonymously online unless you want everyone (including automated dragnets) to know about it.

[-] [email protected] 50 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

TL;DR It uses the Matrix protocol to make every post E2E encrypted in the same way a Matrix chat is. Except they added more separation between people in the “Circles” functionality. Instead of everyone seeing all content like in a chat room, you have to invite people to follow your timeline. And only those people who have been invited can see your posts, and vice versa. I’m not sure he said it specifically, but it was implied that unless people have invited each other to see their posts, they can’t interact with each other in the same circles (he used an example of two people not liking each other and both being able to see a 3rd person’s timeline, but not each others timeline/posts). So essentially it offers encryption and social media like usage but with a sane privacy stance…aka nobody can find you via stalking your mutuals and nobody can just google and DM you out of the blue. Basic photo and sharing is available, apparently improving those features is what is planned for this year. You can also self host it if you wanted, as it just runs off a Matrix server (although they currently provide a US and Europe matrix server run by the FUTO company that funds the app development). Looks like they plan on charging for storage space (1.99$/month for 10GB is what it says in the app right now), and I’m not sure how much storage you get for free.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

This sounds like how my i want my real life interactions to be governed

[-] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago

Wasn’t Google Plus used to be called Circles? Man, I feel old!

[-] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

It was a great feature, would allow you to follow people with similar interests and create your own custom categorised circles.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I think this would be useful for organizations and clubs

[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Nice, own Gitlab instance with locked registration (?) so I cannot report this bug:

[-] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I joined the Matrix instance and the dev said, for some reason, F-droid has the old version (1.0.21)rather than current(1.0.27). They are updating the repos and working on it.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Oh nice, its from their repo not f-droid

[+] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

[deleted]

[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

There’s hardly anything in the privacy policy, it basically says they don’t collect any data beyond what is strictly necessary to provide the service. And then they only use it for exactly that purpose.

What do you expect it to say?

Edit: https://circles.futo.org/privacy/ios/

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Where did you find their privacy policy?

[-] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I found it here.

Here is the (IMHO) relevant part (emphasis mine):

If you use the App with an account hosted on a third-party server, then there are only a few cases where FUTO may learn any information at all about your use of the App.

If you have the App configured to use Google push notifications, then FUTO's push notification gateway will be involved in delivering push notifications from Google to your device. Push notifications include information on the Matrix event that generated the push, including: the human-readable name and Matrix user identifier for the user who sent the event and the Matrix room identifier for the room containing the event. Users who desire a greater level of privacy can configure the App to use UnifiedPush instead of Google Cloud Messaging. When a user on a third-party server receives a UnifiedPush notification through their third-party push server, FUTO does not see the notification or learn anything about it.

If you obtained the App from the Google Play Store, and the App crashes, then we will receive a Firebase crash report.

If you sign up for our mailing list in the app, then we learn your email address.

The notification should be UnifiedPush by default, and crash debug reports should be opt-in, not automatically sent out to the dev via Google... (I don't think it is even possible to opt out)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I don’t feel I understand it when the two words social and privacy are put together.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Social= contact with people you want to contact

Privacy= the stuff you share is not sent to random people but only who you want to

It uses the Matrix protocol which is kind of a red flag because of performance, but its encrypted.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Futo? They also make Grayjay, but this looks like a conference organised by Futo about Futo tech? Or am I missing something?

P.S Is this how I link to their channel on lemmy? [email protected]

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Like this!

[-] [email protected] -4 points 5 months ago

If you already know the person, why not just email them?

[-] [email protected] 28 points 5 months ago

Why even bother communicating with them? You already know them.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

A: Different usecase B: email leaks metadata

[-] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

And you’d have to go about encrypting your email

[-] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

B: and so does matrix, on which Circles is built

[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

TIL

[-] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Lots of things aren't even possible to be encrypted on matrix, such as emoji reactions. Those are always sent in clear text.

...just wait till someone is convicted for arson because the police AI dragnet bots flagged you as guilty because you left a "fire" emoji at the wrong time

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

man doesn't understand the purpose of socializing in groups

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

That was my first thought as well. So... It's email.

this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024

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