There are some major caveats: This is a bit weasel-worded. They don’t say it, but the risk here is that by using this app you’re violating the terms of service for the other services and might get...
There are some major caveats:
Seasoned Element users need to know that the downside of bridging into old-fashioned messaging apps is that conversations with friends in WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram will still be captured by those centralised apps and subject to those providers’ T&Cs - and that they will still need an account on these platforms to relay their messages.
It’s also worth noting that end-to-end encryption is necessarily broken as messages to (and from) WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram pass across the bridge(s). The bridge(s) operates in Element’s trusted EMS environment, with no content scanning or datamining, but currently bridged conversations are not stored end-to-end encrypted in Matrix (they will be in the future).
This is a bit weasel-worded. They don’t say it, but the risk here is that by using this app you’re violating the terms of service for the other services and might get blocked.
Also I think if you want the best security, you’ll want to stick with using multiple apps and avoiding this bridging service. It’s yet another vendor that you have to trust, like using a VPN.
IANAL, but as far as I can tell there is nothing in Matrix, WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram's TOS that would suggest using service bridges would violate said terms. See:...
Well, that’s the tradeoff. If your correspondents can pick any client they want, they can pick something insecure. (Email is kind of an extreme case of this.) With Signal you can assume most of...
Well, that’s the tradeoff. If your correspondents can pick any client they want, they can pick something insecure. (Email is kind of an extreme case of this.)
With Signal you can assume most of your correspondents are probably using a Signal app, but it can’t be guaranteed.
All methods of secure communication require that you trust the other party. Even if the person you're talking to is using signal they can just give their phone to the cia and let them have a look
All methods of secure communication require that you trust the other party. Even if the person you're talking to is using signal they can just give their phone to the cia and let them have a look
I think what they are ultimately saying is that using these app bridges will subject you to any of the data capture, analytics, logging etc. Not just theirs. Incidentally, that kind of clause is...
I think what they are ultimately saying is that using these app bridges will subject you to any of the data capture, analytics, logging etc. Not just theirs. Incidentally, that kind of clause is in a lot of other TOS relating to third party analytics.
The biggest advantage to something like tgis, is if you can get a critical mass of users doing this (and switching over to Matrix when detected both parties are doing so), it could serve as a trigger to bust open chat protocols (again).
A competing Matrix server/client can be written. Not so much for any of those others.
I've seen Beeper before but it's currently more expensive (twice as much) for what I want (just paid managed matrix hosting) and I trust more the Element brand to further Matrix and have my...
I've seen Beeper before but it's currently more expensive (twice as much) for what I want (just paid managed matrix hosting) and I trust more the Element brand to further Matrix and have my interests at heart than Beeper. It may be that I just don't know Beeper enough but Element feels like safest provider at the moment to me.
Yeah, I know Beeper uses Matrix and you can also self-host technically through an ansible recipe but it feels to me like Beeper will be more focused on their product rather than improving things...
Yeah, I know Beeper uses Matrix and you can also self-host technically through an ansible recipe but it feels to me like Beeper will be more focused on their product rather than improving things in the Matrix community (which is important to me).
The author of the bridges used by Element One works at Beeper. EO is essentially exactly Beeper’s tech. I talked to Eric a decent amount and they do seem genuinely enthused in working with Matrix...
The author of the bridges used by Element One works at Beeper. EO is essentially exactly Beeper’s tech.
I talked to Eric a decent amount and they do seem genuinely enthused in working with Matrix and its community. The guy is the founder of Pebble, he knows how important the OSS component is.
I think the price is a little high, but my use case is also a lot more limited than what they are offering. I would essentially be using it as a better Signal client.
I think the price is a little high, but my use case is also a lot more limited than what they are offering. I would essentially be using it as a better Signal client.
There are some major caveats:
This is a bit weasel-worded. They don’t say it, but the risk here is that by using this app you’re violating the terms of service for the other services and might get blocked.
Also I think if you want the best security, you’ll want to stick with using multiple apps and avoiding this bridging service. It’s yet another vendor that you have to trust, like using a VPN.
IANAL, but as far as I can tell there is nothing in Matrix, WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram's TOS that would suggest using service bridges would violate said terms. See:
https://matrix.org/legal/terms-and-conditions#61-use-of-the-service
https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/terms-of-service/
https://signal.org/legal/#terms-of-service
https://telegram.org/tos
Yes, I don’t see it either. Thanks for checking!
Well, that’s the tradeoff. If your correspondents can pick any client they want, they can pick something insecure. (Email is kind of an extreme case of this.)
With Signal you can assume most of your correspondents are probably using a Signal app, but it can’t be guaranteed.
All methods of secure communication require that you trust the other party. Even if the person you're talking to is using signal they can just give their phone to the cia and let them have a look
I think what they are ultimately saying is that using these app bridges will subject you to any of the data capture, analytics, logging etc. Not just theirs. Incidentally, that kind of clause is in a lot of other TOS relating to third party analytics.
The biggest advantage to something like tgis, is if you can get a critical mass of users doing this (and switching over to Matrix when detected both parties are doing so), it could serve as a trigger to bust open chat protocols (again).
A competing Matrix server/client can be written. Not so much for any of those others.
I've seen Beeper before but it's currently more expensive (twice as much) for what I want (just paid managed matrix hosting) and I trust more the Element brand to further Matrix and have my interests at heart than Beeper. It may be that I just don't know Beeper enough but Element feels like safest provider at the moment to me.
Yeah, I know Beeper uses Matrix and you can also self-host technically through an ansible recipe but it feels to me like Beeper will be more focused on their product rather than improving things in the Matrix community (which is important to me).
The author of the bridges used by Element One works at Beeper. EO is essentially exactly Beeper’s tech.
I talked to Eric a decent amount and they do seem genuinely enthused in working with Matrix and its community. The guy is the founder of Pebble, he knows how important the OSS component is.
I think the price is a little high, but my use case is also a lot more limited than what they are offering. I would essentially be using it as a better Signal client.