WhisperSystems + WhatsApp

[Nikos Roussos]

On 11/20/2014 01:40 AM, Andy Isaacson wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 10:58:56PM +0000, Cathal (Phone) wrote:
>> Not if that E2E protocol is entirely undermined. Which is the case
>> here: trust is security. If 600M people think they have privacy and
>> don't, that's a problem.
> 
> Have you heard of the phrase "harm reduction"?  You can't solve a
> social/technical problem by insisting that only perfect solutions are
> acceptable.  You must provide incremental solutions that can be part of
> a broad based move from the horrible place where we are now, towards a
> more safe future.

Unless when it's not an improvement. False privacy promises are worse
than no promises.

> I mean, *you* can do whatever you want, but users are going to ignore
> solutions that don't connect to where they are today.  "Incremental
> steps with continuous improvement" is a model for advice that actually
> works in improving outcomes for real populations.  "Burn everything to
> the ground and start over" is a model for advice that lets activists
> maintain ideological purity without dirtying their hands with actual
> people's actual problems.

Both WhatsApp + TextSecure are centralized systems (which also happen to
want full access to you contacts list). So it's actually a radical
deterioration compared the decentralized protocols we built all these years.

It's not about ideological purity. It's usually the "realists" who
choose the easy path of building closed silos instead of getting their
hands dirty and improve existing working technologies.


-- 
Nikos Roussos
http://www.roussos.cc

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