Isn't the point of the article that they can't leak something they don't have?
So if I never get your social security number from you, then I have zero risk of leaking it or exposing it to hackers. I can't give them (intentionally or unintentionally) something that I don't possess.
The author says:
> Given these criteria and extremes, we decided that our best course of action is to just never have our users' private data.
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To your next question on what happens if Matter is acquired. Well the app might stop working or change how it works or have new logo in the corner, but your data never left your device, so you don't really have to worry about it being leaked to Belarus.
You're one update away from having an app that has access to all its data and can ship it anywhere. Do you keep updates off?
Every time I turn on my computer dnfdragora is like "there are 35 new updates!"
Oh yeah? But my computer is working. Those updates could fix problems that I don't have but could break stuff I have as well. I'm not updating until they release Fedora 40. (my nvidia driver stopped working when I upgraded to 39, again...)
To begin with who thought these notifications were a good idea? Just appear meekly on the system tray when you have something to say. The only time a popup is acceptable is if it says "yo, your computer is on fire." Anything less is unnecessary distraction.
I want my software as-is, changing only when I want it to change. The other day a Windows update removed my "show desktop" button from the task bar to insert a copilot button. Who asked for this? The taskbar changes when I say it changes! I started using the program because I liked the way it was. If it wasn't the way it was I wouldn't have started using it, so why change?
To make matters worse, I don't think there has ever been a time a software updated that I said "they finally added X!" It just never happens. It's insane. Things really only get worse with time. Ten years ago GIMP didn't have nondestructive editing. It still doesn't. I'm still waiting for it. They said it will come in GIMP 3, for years. I feel like that update is just never coming. We're at GIMP 2.99.18 now. Can you believe it? 2.99.18. Who even reaches minor version .99?!
As soon as it has a server to talk to things changes. It becomes rather expensive to maintain a server that has to support any previous client, or to support all the users who don't know how to update.
In practice auto-update is the best default. Android lets you turn it off. On iOS I don't know.
You should probably read the article, though. (-;
I have access to everything (on the tech side) at Matter, and if you put your social security number into the app, I wouldn't be able to access it to write it on a sticky note. That's the whole point.
PS I'm also old and jaded. (-;
To put it concretely: if everyone at Matter tomorrow became malevolent and wanted user data, what happens? For example, if you push an app that sends home my private text, how would I know? Could you?
Signal has an open source client. Big difference for these claims.
Still, I’m less confident in saying any other company fulfill’s Matter’s promise than saying they aren’t.
That's a major point that's addressed in the blog post, did you read it?
> even if we are competent enough to prevent a leak from ever happening, and even if our users trust us to do what we say, we must be resilient to being strong-armed by a future controlling power (e.g. if someone we don't trust buys us)
They could be strong armed into collecting data and then handing it over.
A closed source client is fundamentally incompatible with the claims they want to make.
Why are so many of you so keen for them to be "wrong"? Like what even is the alternative approach here supposed to be? Don't build a product in the first place?
The original premise of the article is we don’t have to be concerned with their intentions. This is false.
> Why are so many of you so keen for them to be "wrong"?
I’d rather they were right. But they are wrong.
> Like what even is the alternative approach here supposed to be? Don't build a product in the first place?
Don’t say you can do things you can’t.
I don’t have to offer a solution to point out they’re not offering one either.
Audit the code as desired, pin to specific versions, run on a private network.
1. You can't leak what you don't have.
That is, even if the company gets bought out or is hacked, if they don't have the data, there is nothing to leak. This point is also at least partially enforced by another point from the post:
2. Advanced app users can audit their network traffic from the app
Now, granted, I wouldn't expect many users to do this, but highlighting it at least serves as a warning that it should be harder for the app to surreptitiously change what is sent to the server (and to emphasize, I know this can be worked/hacked around, but I don't think working around this could ever be done with plausible deniability).
Given the fact that companies and products jettison their high-minded policies as soon as it becomes economically inconvenient, the only other thing I'd recommend for the author is to have a good, simple export tool, e.g. something that dumps all the "memories" to a directory or PDF file. The post talks about backup and restore, but if I were a potential user I'd like to know that if the company does kick their privacy policy to the curb at some point that I could get all of the investment and data out of the app without needing to continue to rely on the app for at least the base data I put into it.
So thanks, but this isn't enough anymore. We need laws that will guarantee that every company that handles our data will do it thoughtfully and safely. In the meantime, I'm not expecting much.