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Google Messages just flicked the switch on end-to-end encryption for all RCS and group chats
(chromeunboxed.com)
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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If you can't trust peer review from experts in a field, many aspects of society break down. For example:
Nobody can be an expert in every field. It's completely unfeasible for most people to verify source code themselves, but that doesn't mean open source doesn't matter. Society operates on a degree of trust in our fellow humans that ARE experts in their field. The more experts in agreement the better, since nobody is infallible.
I'm not sure what you're suggesting people do? Go live in a hole by themselves because the world is full of liars and deceivers? Or become superhuman and hand verify every possible thing that could negatively effect them?
No of course not. I'm sorry if I'm expressing this badly, my point was merely that open source tends to add a false sense of security for people. The relevant ability to verify is factually never used, and experts that review the code might as well have had access to it without it being open sources (see Whatsapp's audit a while back).
That is not to say that Open Source is not a good thing, don't get me wrong. But I feel we tend to massively overstate what it adds for us personally. We put too much value on that side of it, as if it automatically means every user has personally verified everything.
It doesn't add a false sense of security at all. It forces the devs to put their name on the line with every pull request. They are publicly accountable for any and all code that is added to the product, in an open and transparent repository. If they try any shenanigans, and if anyone catches them, the developer, the project, and the community will all suffer.
It also gives the community a chance to fork the code and remove the problem. You can carefully rebuild with a new dev or new team.
Using open source software is a real sense of security, because it was built for you, not for money.
That's a fair statement to say open source on it's own doesn't add any security. I will say that any developer who's intentionally adding vulnerabilities to their code is less likely to publish the source, simply because someone COULD see it. With the number of automated vulnerability scanners on Github, it would require a lot of extra work to go undetected, when simply going closed source is an option. Once again, the more open the better, since there's fewer places to hide things.