this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023

41 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy Guides

16746 readers

2 users here now

In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.

This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.

You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:

Learn more...

Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!

Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!

This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.

Moderation Rules:

We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
This is not the place for self-promotion if you are not listed on privacyguides.org. If you want to be listed, make a suggestion on our forum first.
No soliciting engagement: Don't ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
Don't repost topics which have already been covered here.
News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don't abuse our community's willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.

Additional Resources:

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

What are your opinions on Matrix? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

93 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was sold on Matrix as a viable alternative to Discord but recently read this article which made it look not so good.

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

"5 years after the creation of Matrix, and after 5 years of centrally receiving such a scandalous amount of users private data from their «decentralized» software, it was only after the mentioned report was published when the Matrix developers published some «privacy improvements» [13] addressing some of the revealed problems.

We have not read it."

This seems lazy to me. I haven't read the report but i'm also not the one writing an article bashing matrix. If i was I'd want to know whether my concerns are still valid, and as a reader i want to know whether the concerns they brought up still apply without having to read a whole other report

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

The rest of the article reads the same. They even said what they were repeating is probably FUD and made zero effort to investigate.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

yeah it seems like they started writing this article by forming an opinion then cherry picking, not looking at the data and then forming an opinion around it

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That article is mostly FUD, but there are very good reasons to be sceptical of Matrix, as it is mostly driven by a VC funded for-profit company.

If you are looking for a truly community driven and owned alternative, check out XMPP: https://joinjabber.org

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

XMPP has issues such as rooms are not properly decentralised, not all clients support proper replys and you cant edit messages older then 1 message

the servers are much lighter then matrix servers, conduit is quite light and fast compared to synapse but not as light as XMPP servers

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes the article is FUD and sloppy. This is what Matthew Hodgson (Arathorn) had to say about it:

Talking of sloppiness, that hackea.org article is a huge steaming pile of FUD about Matrix.

For what it’s worth, the team who came up with Matrix was originally based in two separate startups: one in the UK doing VoIP, one in France doing mobile dev. Both got acquired by Amdocs in 2010, but we ended up forming an independent “incubated startup” first to build telco apps, and then we came up with the idea of Matrix in ~2013. We then built out Matrix until 2017 when Amdocs killed our funding, having run out of patience for what amounted to generous FOSS philanthropy.

We then set up New Vector (now Element) as an entirely independent UK/FR startup, and have received zero funding from Amdocs since. To be crystal clear: Amdocs has zero privileged influence or control over Matrix (or Element, for that matter), and has zero access to the Matrix servers we operate as Element. And besides - the whole point of Matrix is that you can and should run your own servers so you can pick who to trust, even if you don’t trust the project itself.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That article is full of fud don't trust it

but I do generally like matrix, its far from perfect but I do think its the best bet for a decentralised chat platform

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Matrix is okay but like anything else, it's security is dependent on your server admins. Session has no server so that's what I'd recommend if you have the option.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

there is still servers it goes through to get to whoever your talking to and it doesnt have perfect forward security so that a no go for me

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It goes through TOR "nodes" but it can be routed through any of 10k different ones. It doesn't go through any Session servers and doesn't need Session servers.

Perfect Forward Secrecy is not important and Session details clearly why it works this way..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Session has no server so that’s what I’d recommend if you have the option.

Closed rooms in session are limited to 100 people iirc. You can have Matrix rooms with any number of users.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Matrix is fine, just use end-to-end endcryption which is trivial to set up.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Theres a lot of metadata that's not encrypted in matrix, some of which goes to matrix.org no matter what server youre using.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If your talking to someone and your both on a server that's not matrix.org no data gets sent to matrix.org

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Except that the Element web-client also phones home to matrix/element mothership.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

thats one check and just use another client :P and that doesnt send the messages in the room to matrix.org so that doesnt have anything to do with the comment I replied to

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Now you're just making excuses for new vector/matrix

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

all it does is ping to check that your config.md is valid I think its not the end of the world like people make it out to be and its element/new vector not new vector/matrix

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Element web-client also phones home

It doesn't send metadata about your use. There is a version check though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That is the nature of any federated protocol.

E2EE works well enough within rooms and that is likely where private data is to be anyway. As long as you Matrix and assume that everyone can see your Matrix ID and room IDs you'll be okay.

XMPP isn't any better in that regard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's why I joined a Swiss server 😀

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It doesn't matter what server you use, unless you do not interact with anyone from matrix.org.

load more comments (6 replies)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Meh, I use it. I'll take it over Discord or Telegram any day. But I don't use it for anything that may be sensitive or anything involving IRL people.

It's leaky. I remember all media were uploaded unencrypted and available over https, I don't know if it is still like that. Lots and lots of metadata out in the open. To be searchable you have to give your phone number to a centralized service. The protocol is overly complex, all messages live on all servers of everyone involved in the conversation, lots of duplication, but ActivityPub is like that too and we are on Lemmy...

If I set my own stuff up, I prefer XMPP, and increasingly Simplex. If some project uses matrix, I have an account and will talk to them there.

Overall I'm not a fan, but I don't outright hate it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You don't have to give them your phone number to be searchable, just use your matrix ID

Files in encrypted rooms are encrypted

Your not wrong about the metadata but xmpp leaks the same amount it just doesn't goto every server that has a user in the room

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

No, to be searchable by your friends you have to attach your matrix ID to your phone number and upload it to an identity server, which anyone can run of course but which is useless unless its the new vector identity server. It's a central database of verified matrix IDs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

you dont, users can find me just fine without sending my phone number to an idenity server, please stop spreading FUD

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you have to attach your matrix ID to your phone number

Yes, this is FUD, it's not necessary, and entirely opt-in. Also you don't even need to connect to the identity server.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, you don't have to. But to be able to easily prove you are who you are to IRL people you will. And the decision tells you something about the product and protocol design.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

what? no you dont and the founders have said they dont like them at all since they go against the core of matrix but they make alot of sense in businesses for an internal chat app

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

No you don't 🙂 DM your Matrix ID and I'll show you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To me, the biggest problem with Matrix is that Synapse and Dendrite are both really heavy. I use an alternative server called Matrix Conduit that's more like an xmpp server in how light it is. Only problem then is that Conduit doesn't have that many resources so it's always a few steps back from Synapse or Dendrite.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

synapse has gotten lighter, but its still heavy if you join a big room like HQ with a few thousand servers in and a complex state

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My main complaint about it is it just seems so resource heavy and complex for what it offers. It's nowhere near a viable alternative for Discord yet unless all you do is text chat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Matrix has no resources. It's just a protocol. If you mean Element, and are signed up with matrix.org server, I would recommend choosing another server.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its alright, but resource heavy, more complex, and leaks more metadata than XMPP.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

leaks more metadata than XMPP

XMPP is not a private protocol either. In a lot of cases data is not E2EE, there is no reference clients and there's a mess of standards that very few if any clients fully implement.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The "lot of cases" you're referring is using XMPP without OMEMO enabled, which is a pretty moot point as anyone using XMPP for any sensitive purpose would enable this (and every client I've used clearly warns you your message content is unencrypted if this is disabled). Also, XMPP has better (imo) and more numerous clients than Matrix on every platform except iOS and MacOS (No better XMPP client than Element on these platforms).

I disagree that XMPP is a "mess of standards". XMPP is one standard, extremely minimal at its core, which is highly extensible. The issue you're talking about is that clients dont always support every XMPP feature, although they all support OMEMO.

I definitely prefer an extensible protocol to a much heavier, metadata-leaking, less-feasible to self host solution like Matrix.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

you’re referring is using XMPP without OMEMO

OMEMO encrypts text messages for VOIP you need DTLS-SRTP encryption or Jingle session encryption. OMEMO has no concept of cross signing, ie one device being trusted and therefore the others either if they do an authentication with each other. Device verification has to be done each session which is a massive pain.

warns you your message content is unencrypted if this is disabled

The point is that Matrix 1:1 calls are always encrypted and soon with MSC3401: Native Group VoIP Signalling 1:many VOIP calls will be as well. Having foot guns about what might be encrypted or not in a client isn't very private at all.

Also, XMPP has better (imo) and more numerous clients than Matrix on every platform except iOS and MacOS (No better XMPP client than Element on these platforms).

I've used Nheko and that's pretty good. Last time I checked the XMPP clients that existed had a lot of rough edges and feature inconsistency.

I definitely prefer an extensible protocol to a much heavier, metadata-leaking, less-feasible to self host solution like Matrix.

That is definitely your opinion, Matrix has shown to be very feasible in a commercial sense as there are many providers and commercial clients using it, french, german government etc. There are also quite a few clients using EMS. They claim: "Matrix is an open network for secure, decentralised communication, connecting 80M+ users over 80K+ deployments."

Which is probably a lot more than XMPP.

Matrix really can be quite lightweight enough that it will be entirely possible to run a homeserver locally in WASM which is what the Matrix P2P project is about. https://arewep2pyet.com/ has more details about that. It's also possible to have very light Matrix servers Breaking the 100bps barrier with Matrix, meshsim & coap-proxy. The reason that a lot of public Matrix servers are quite "heavy" is because they have many numbers of users, and activity. Synapse has also made huge gains in this regard to what it was originally, and we know that Dendrite uses a lot less resources (that I've tested privately).

With RFC 9420 aka Messaging Layer Security (MLS) it should be entirely possible to have large E2EE rooms without too much of a performance hit. Matrix is also working on MLS: A giant leap forwards for encryption with MLS. They have a site tracking that: https://arewemlsyet.com/

The point is a lot of testing and thought goes into these things.

metadata-leaking

You're pretending XMPP doesn't have metadata between servers, it certainly does it's really no more private than Matrix.

This is what Matthew Hodgson (Arathorn) - CEO of Element had to say about it in March 13, 2022:

Talking of sloppiness, that hackea.org article is a huge steaming pile of FUD about Matrix.

For what it’s worth, the team who came up with Matrix was originally based in two separate startups: one in the UK doing VoIP, one in France doing mobile dev. Both got acquired by Amdocs in 2010, but we ended up forming an independent “incubated startup” first to build telco apps, and then we came up with the idea of Matrix in ~2013. We then built out Matrix until 2017 when Amdocs killed our funding, having run out of patience for what amounted to generous FOSS philanthropy.

We then set up New Vector (now Element) as an entirely independent UK/FR startup, and have received zero funding from Amdocs since. To be crystal clear: Amdocs has zero privileged influence or control over Matrix (or Element, for that matter), and has zero access to the Matrix servers we operate as Element. And besides - the whole point of Matrix is that you can and should run your own servers so you can pick who to trust, even if you don’t trust the project itself.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use Matrix; XMPP; Session; Jami; and am looking into Briar. Some of what the article says is valid but other parts are weird such as when they list Riot as "the Matrix client". Matrix has many clients. I don't use Riot at all. I use Fluffy Chat and Cinny Mainly. A lot of their list of issues don't apply to me. For instance my phone number isn't tied to my Matrix account and while they may get my IP I am usually on a VPN so that limits what they get. They talk of Matrix being centralized but that only really applies if you use the Matrix home server, there are many alternatives.

In the end they have some valid concerns but it really depends on what Matrix is being compared to. Even with these issues is it betetr than Discord for privacy and security ? Yes it is. Discord is clsoed source so nobody knows what it gives up or does in the background. No closed source program can be trusted over a FOSS option. If you want to trust any of the options I mentioned over Matrix then feel free to but don't trust Discord over it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

For instance my phone number isn’t tied to my Matrix account

It isn't for anyone using any client unless they optionally decide to provide it.

They talk of Matrix being centralized but that only really applies if you use the Matrix home server, there are many alternatives

Indeed: https://joinmatrix.org/servers/ and that's not even getting started on the private ones or unlisted ones.

is it betetr than Discord for privacy and security ?

100% Discord has no privacy no encryption, the company sees absolutely everything.

Discord is clsoed source so nobody knows what it gives up or does in the background

That doesn't necessarily impact privacy, and we know exactly what it does in the background based on their privacy policy, which in itself is quite ambiguous in parts. They're quite happy there to admit they will tie identities together if you use social media logins and features like that.

No closed source program can be trusted over a FOSS option

I would say be careful here, because something is open source doesn't necessarily mean anyone cares about what the code is actually doing. In the case of Matrix it is a very active project with a lot of community engagement and a well thought out specification so that everyone can "get up to speed". That is extremely important. Nobody is going to sift through a tarball of source code "it's open source", if the development is not. It's also totally possible for a patched version to be running in production that doesn't reflect the source code.

That is why it's very important not to confuse FOSS with privacy.

load more comments (5 replies)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I would prefer session but messages aren't reliable. They can come late or out of order, if the core functionality makes you trouble you can't make convince other people to use it.

load more comments