Hello Everyone,

This is something I’ve been thinking about in the wake of many users joining Signal, due to WhatsApp’s new privacy policy changes.

When it comes to the mobile client (in case of Android), we could verify its integrity by checking the source code & the APK’s integrity using reproducible builds (https://signal.org/blog/reproducible-android/).

When it comes to the server, it is possible that it could get compromised in many ways.

My question is, when it comes to privacy & security, does the server integrity matter if we are reasonably sure the client isn’t compromised in any way or doesn’t transmit anything that the server could access in a meaningful way.

And, this could apply to any service that has both FOSS client & server or just FOSS client.

  • Rugged Raccoon@lemmy.mlOP
    2·
    4 years ago

    in that case the owner can publish updates that reduce the privacy of the app

    Can you please elaborate on this?

    • Dreeg Ocedam@lemmy.ml
      4·
      4 years ago

      For example, removing the encryption so that the contents of the messages can be used for ad targeting. If the server is closed source no one can fork the app and build an alternative network keeping the encryption, they would have to rebuild the whole server side from scratch. One could keep using the old version of the app, but it is likely that they will end up being booted of by the servers.

      If Signal does that, it is very likely that third party clients and servers will be able to quickly pop up and keep the encryption.

      • Rugged Raccoon@lemmy.mlOP
        2·
        4 years ago

        All these are some hypothetical scenarios I thought about.

        As far as I read, the client sends as little as possible, encrypted. So, the server can’t interpret it meaningfully. Let’s say I’ve installed the client from an apk which I know has not been compromised.

        So, either the client becomes unusable, because the server tries to mess with the encryption, or the server simply doesn’t accept requests from the modified client.

        • poVoq@lemmy.ml
          1·
          4 years ago

          Almost anyone can be socially engineered to accept a compromised app update, but that is anyways a moot point.

          Why would you use a service that connects your device to a US based and likely compromised server, if there are alternatives that can be hosted locally? It doesn’t really matter if the service only sends minimal and encrypted data, because in the age of big data that is plenty to use for ML based correlation. No data shared is always better :)

          • Rugged Raccoon@lemmy.mlOP
            2·
            4 years ago

            I totally get that. But, it’s an uphill battle to make people you know well, to switch to a centralized alternative, let alone a decentralized/p2p/self hosted one.