I don’t think very highly of a cloud based app asking me for my credentials for every other cloud based app I used.
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
-7 points (39.4% liked)
Privacy
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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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This.
if Lorem Ipsum is the first information i have about an app, i don't need to think about it. This is from their webpage 👉
Oopsie, forgot the fake reviews!
Atleast it is consistent /s
“For example, if you send a message from Beeper to a friend on WhatsApp, the message is encrypted on your Beeper client, sent to the Beeper web service, which decrypts and re-encrypts the message with WhatsApp's proprietary encryption protocol.”
So, not really end to end for most common use-cases.
Yeah I got my invite last week. But between the time it was announced and looking into it, I’ve balked and won’t use it.
That said I’m considering self hosting
https://github.com/beeper/self-host
I was thinking it was something like what pidgin does on desktop, adapted for mobile, and was highly enthusiastic, but realized it works using matrix bridges and doesn't process locally...
Well, at least it can be self hosted.
Given this is !privacy and the advertise as front page features both “works will all your messaging apps” and “end to end encryption”, it seems important to flag currently those aren’t mutually compatible.
It’s not their fault the apps don’t have e2e APIs, it’s a tough problem, but the secrecy and privacy guarantee is just “trust us to stick to our policy”. And they’re a start-up, tooling isn’t perfect (or even exist), mistakes happen, etc
Their self-hosting looks interesting, but then it said to use your own clients too, which took the fun out of that.
it said to use your own clients too, which took the fun out of that.
You can use Element, which is essentially the same thing as Beeper's client:
In order to provide the service, Beeper collects device information, including OS, hardware, public IP addresses, network routing information, information on the installed Beeper client, and other device settings.
🤔
bloat
This seems too good to be true, but deserves to be tested. Apparently, you have the option to self host your web service, in case you don't want to give them your data.
Apparently, you have the option to self host your web service
Beeper hosts a Matrix account and bridges for you so yes, it's possible to replicate that. their bridges are open source, too.
It is. But their client only connects to beeper bridges. So you gotta roll your own client too
well, you could use an existing Matrix client, like Element. some people already manage their messaging that way.
Also the service is 18+. Most likely to avoid stricter data protection around children data.
Source: https://www.beeper.com/terms
I like it so far, seems to work reliably and the client is leaps better than any other Matrix client on iOS.
Haven’t checked out the option to self host the bridges yet but it’s on my list.
Isn't this just adding another potential point of failure to every single service you add to it? Hard pass.
I've been on the waitlist for a while and am excited to get through. It may suck but it's worth testing. The privacy issues aren't ideal but it doesn't seem like they sell your data.
The only good idea Ryan unironically had
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