Scott JensonFeb 19

#mastondon Friends!

There is a TON of improvements we could make to Private Mentions (often called DMs on other platforms) e.g.
* getting them out of the public timeline
* Having a stronger notification tied to the Private Mention tab
* (amount other things)

But here is my MAIN question: How critical is it that these message are encrypted? I'm not against encryption! It's just complex and will take time. If we were to make some UX changes as a first pass WITHOUT encryption would you be OK with that (at least for now?)

If you MUST have encryption, that's fine, please do me the favor of replying explaining why you need it.

Show threadJackFeb 20
I think some people were using PMs for potentially sensitive info (addresses, Venmo, etc.), and having them slightly more secure puts people at ease.

What about standard public-key stuff, dropping a short public key in a metadata field, keeping the private key on the endpoint or in the client?
Show threadstephen

@knapjack
How can the sender validate the public key hasn't been tampered with by the instance or server admin?

It is a hard problem. There are solutions but it will be complicated.

@scottjenson

Feb 20 at 3:43amWeb
Show threadJackFeb 20
For sure. Mainly I'm thinking about "Pretty Good Obfuscation" than a good solution. Something better than in the clear.

Really, delivery isn't guaranteed, so there are already potential issues about tampering that encryption won't necessarily fix, just maybe make abusing it harder.
Show threadstephenFeb 20
@knapjack I understand where you are coming from. I might have agreed a few years ago. But encrypted messages need to be rock solid. Recently many governments the world over have shown they are more than willing to use the courts to subvert encrypted communications. Including forcing service providers like your friendly Masto admin to both hand over data and backdoor encryption.
Show threadJackFeb 21
I hear you.

I guess for me, I'm not going to use social media for that kind of thing, but I've exchanged snail mail addresses with online acquaintances and not sure if I would ever do that via the Fediverse with the current implementations.

I can also see that in my head, my implementation would never have the private key server-side on a shared server, which would make it useless via the web. Honk and snac have spoiled me. But I could see having a private key in one of the mobile clients and never on a server.
Show threadJackFeb 20
#TedUnangst seems to be off the Fediverse (and maybe the web) but linking this here for posterity: https://github.com/timkuijsten/honk/blob/fork/encrypt.go