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Re: [tor-talk] TIMB vs TextSecure



Hey.

Am 01.03.2014 08:23, schrieb Gordon Morehouse:
With the news hitting some tech sites about TIMB, I went digging
around briefly to find the reasoning for rolling something anew rather
than backing e.g. TextSecure. (I know there are serious questions
about the security of Telegram.)

I'm sure there is a good reason, but what is it?

Using Tor gives you a few properties that no other instant messaging solution can currently provide.

 - The IM server can not learn your IP.
- A network observer can not learn that you are using IM (just that you are using Tor).
 - You cannot block the IM service without blocking Tor.

Furthermore, there are (in my opinion) still some serious problems with TextSecure, most importantly:

 - Only phone numbers as identifiers.
- Sends your address book to the server in full (hashed, but that doesn't mean anything for phone numbers). No opt-out if you want to use the push transport.
 - Requires Google Play to be installed and uses GCM for notifications.

Though moxie has plans to address these problems, they currently exist.


felix
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