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Re:The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen by pdimitar on Monday January 11, 2021 @07:41AM (#25728126)
Yeah, I definitely got worked up so I partially contributed to the problem. Can't deny the facts.

I already responded to those criticisms elsewhere but here goes: I never expected any messenger to do end-to-end encryption. I am quite aware how un-ergonomic such a messenger would be so I know that Telegram does little more than TLS protection of the network socket. And that's fine with me and with millions of others.

But I still don't get why Telegram is the constant target of HN. Why not WhatsApp? Viber? Or literally every other messenger? I challenge you to find such brutal and full of flagged comments threads not pertaining to Telegram. As said above, we both live in our own bubble but all WhatsApp threads I've seen lately only aim at the user's data privacy and almost nobody ever mentions that their "encryption" is also a glorified TLS and their claims for end-to-end encryption are very likely dubious and a pure PR stunt.

Admittedly some of the responses earlier -- which were very unconstructive -- got to me.

Re:The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen by ryanlol on Monday January 11, 2021 @07:50AM (#25728208)
> I am quite aware how un-ergonomic such a messenger would be so I know that Telegram does little more than TLS protection of the network socket. And that's fine with me and with millions of others.

The amount of people who understand this certainly isn’t in the millions. The fact is that most Telegram users have no idea that their conversations aren’t encrypted, most people incorrectly assume that it’s more secure than whatsapp.

> WhatsApp threads I've seen lately only aim at the user's data privacy and almost nobody ever mentions that their "encryption" is also a glorified TLS and their claims for end-to-end encryption are very likely dubious and a pure PR stunt.

This is complete nonsense. Whatsapp uses the Signal Protocol. Their claims of end-to-end encryption are true (and easily verifiable! just pull out the debugger of your choice)

> Admittedly some of the responses earlier -- which were very unconstructive -- got to me.

I think your (perfectly understandable) misinterpretation was corrected in a rather polite manner, but you still wanted to argue after being corrected by multiple native english speakers.

Re:The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen by pdimitar on Monday January 11, 2021 @07:57AM (#25728275)
> This is complete nonsense. Whatsapp uses the Signal Protocol. Their claims of end-to-end encryption are true (and easily verifiable! just pull out the debugger of your choice)

I don't dispute this but apparently there's still a way for Facebook to give FBI et. al. un-encrypted chats, no? So is that truly encrypted?

> I think your (perfectly understandable) misinterpretation was corrected in a rather polite manner, but you still wanted to argue after being corrected by multiple native english speakers.

Yes and no. Being a native speaker doesn't excuse ambiguity and idiomatic expressions. I believe people who write in English on the internet have a duty to avoid idioms as much as possible. I am not a native speaker and easily misrepresented the meaning.

But, even the author corrected me so, okay.

As for polite... let's agree to disagree there. You are questioning my opinion that I get snarky replies but IMO it's clearly visible that no small amount of replies weren't made in good faith and were only aimed to express hurtful sarcasm.

Re:The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen by ryanlol on Monday January 11, 2021 @08:21AM (#25728515)
>but apparently there's still a way for Facebook to give FBI et. al. un-encrypted chats, no?

I’d love to see a source for this.

Re:The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen by pdimitar on Monday January 11, 2021 @08:25AM (#25728543)
Me too, but after Snowden I doubt we'd be able to even if it were true.
Re:The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen by ryanlol on Monday January 11, 2021 @08:33AM (#25728627)
I don’t get it, this claim should be fairly easy to prove by reverse engineering the app.
Re:The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen by pdimitar on Monday January 11, 2021 @03:02PM (#25735595)
Then why has nobody done it? F.ex. Google's Project Zero?
Re:The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I’ve Ever Seen by pvg on Monday January 11, 2021 @03:40PM (#25736369)
You mean, why has nobody found WhatsApp is actually not E2E encrypted? Could it be it's because it's actually E2E encrypted? Your evidence to the contrary is no evidence at all and now you're asking why p0 hasn't found evidence of your position either. It's a very odd line of argument.