blog: finally write about Matrix, Synapse, Element, Consistency and Privacy
Resolves: #230
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layout: post
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title: "Inconsistency and privacy issues with Element, Matrix and Synapse"
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category: [english]
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tags: [english, matrix, privacy]
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redirect_from:
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- /matrix.html
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- /element.html
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---
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*Having used Matrix since 2016 and hearing about its greatness without any
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issues so much, I wish to correct some misconceptions. I attempt to provide
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citations for everything and not name any other solution. I cannot discuss
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administrating experience due to not having any with Matrix personally.*
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# Element, what Element?
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Element is the defacto Matrix client. If you wish to get into Matrix, you
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will likely hear the advice to install Element or use it on the web.
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It comes with two problems:
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* you will likely register your account on the `matrix.org` homeserver and
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later hear that you made a mistake in using it as it's overloaded and you
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should instead use some other homeserver which would also be good for
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healthy federation, but the interface doesn't suggest or offer you any
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other servers.
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* maybe in the future [your account will be decentralized and that won't matter](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/915)?
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* if you happen to be like me and use both Element Web and Element iOS, you
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will notice they are wildly inconsistent. I cannot comment on Element
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Android as my phone (Nokia 1 / TA-1047) is too weak powered for pleasant
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Matrix experience and I don't use it much.
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Comparing the later two platforms, I imagine you will hit some of these
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problems sooner or later:
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* You hear of interesting room on another room and you wish to join it. You
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touch the name wishing to get into there? What happens instead? You will get
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an error message [cannot rejoin an empty room](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues/1066).
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* I hope that doesn't annoy you and you wish to hear the workaround of
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running `/join #room:example.net` by hand instead.
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* This may be a bit more rare one, but if you share rooms with bots, you may
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notice that on Element Web they are more gray than people. [Element iOS just never got messages from bots being rendered differently](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues/882).
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* I may again be a bit weird, but I wish to have [timestamps for all messages visible all the time](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues/524),
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but Element says no. They exist on Web, not on iOS. Same if you [wanted to see seconds](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues/3901)
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* I almost forgot, but the [new spaces](https://element.io/blog/spaces-the-next-frontier/)
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just [don't exist on iOS](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues?q=label%3AA-Spaces+),
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should you attempt to join or be invited to one, you will get a banner
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saying that they aren't implemented yet and you cannot accept or reject
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the invite unless you open Element Web to do that.
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And that is probably enough of annoyances with Element iOS, I hope the
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situation will improve in foreseeable future there due to
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[Matrix exploding with Element securing $30M funding to revolutionise the app’s usability, build out major new features, expand in the enterprise market and take Matrix fully mainstream!](https://element.io/blog/element-raises-30m-as-matrix-explodes/)
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# You mentioned privacy?
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Yes, privacy is a big reason why Matrix is advertised and the lack of it is
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a fact you agree to by using Matrix or getting bridged to Matrix (which is
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out of scope for this blog post as it involves other protocols too much,
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whether you know Matrix or not).
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As with the internet in general, the most safe assumption is that once you
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post something it's there forever. It may be encrypted in a private Matrix
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room or it may be public in a public room, but it will most likely be there
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forever.
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Matrix does support [history retention if you are advanced enough to enable it](https://brendan.abolivier.bzh/matrix-retention-policies/),
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this assumes [your homeserver explicitly enables it as it's not default](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/ba5287f5e8be150551824493b3ad685dde00a543/docs/sample_config.yaml#L481-L484)
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and as your room is hosted on every homeserver that has users in your room,
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have a single homeserver that hasn't explicitly enabled it and the room
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history never goes away. (If I am wrong, [please contact me](/discuss) as
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I have one private room where history goes away after 7 days, but another with the
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same configuration (nowadays 31 days though), which I can scroll as far back
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as I want.)
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*Technical note: sorry about calling reference homeserver implementation issue
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as a Matrix protocol issue.*
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You may say that this requires you to trust the homeserver admin anyway and
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that is true, I wish people could trust each other and even if someone
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modified their Synapse to never remove anything or had a client logging
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everything, they wouldn't throw that history to people who don't want to see it.
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Speaking of removals, once you remove a message [it will be stored in the database for server admins for 7 days](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/ba5287f5e8be150551824493b3ad685dde00a543/docs/sample_config.yaml#L456-L461) which is fine for me, but if [this message happened to be media instead of text, it would never be removed](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/1263) and should you have copied link to the media, it would keep on working
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and if you changed the homeserver address in your copied link, it would still
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keep on working. Is this something you expect from a private protocol? I don't, or I didn't before getting familiar with Matrix. There is also an [alternative proposal about this](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/22289).
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*By the way Synapse is still a reference homeserver implementation and not
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Matrix protocol itself, so sorry about that for anyone technical reading this.*
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Do you use different names in different contexts? Like your Full Name in
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professional context, a nickname somewhere else and maybe what will be your
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real name after gender transitioning or even have a diffferent name in direct
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chat with your partner? [Congratulations, whatever is your latest room-specific name is public, same with your potential avatar](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/5677).
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*Synapse didn't become Matrix protocol itself by the way, there are still other implementations!*
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This issue does have a potential solution [an API planned for room specific details (2015)](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/545)
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and what I am hopeful about in the future [open pull request specification for space specific profiles](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/3189),
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unless it just moves the issue to a different level.
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I think that was my biggest complaints on Matrix (or Synapse itself), that
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don't involve other protocols and I have personally experienced. My notes
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for this blog post include [Matrix not having real contacts list](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2228),
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but they didn't occur to me and I guess it has been doing fine enough without
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implementing those.
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If any of these issues is a dealbreaker for you or you don't want to hear
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a bad word about Matrix, you may be wondering what is the perfect flawless
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solution? I don't know, personally I don't think it may not exist and I don't
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want to enter discussing compromise solutions or other protocols in this post
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at all. This list also wasn't complete on what issues I have with Matrix
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(and so close to the end I don't want to dig for references) and I have
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specific wishes that no protocol offers (at least not consistently,
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such as using multiple names and knowing which name I am using where or managing
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50 different rooms with same operators everywhere, but [that may get answered by Matrix](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2962).)
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You may wonder was it nice of me to write so negative blog post. I find it
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therapeutic as [I have had an issue to me to write this since 2021-01-15](https://github.com/Mikaela/mikaela.github.io/issues/2309)
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and now I have finally done it, a bit over half an year late,
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spending a bit over an hour to it and I feel better after getting these problems
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out of my head and maybe they weren't so big after all. Up to you.
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Lastly I apologise to you-know-who-you-are for not titling this post "undefined",
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or even M.UNKNOWN (which I would have imagined to be one of the issues for me to write about, but
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I don't remember seeing it in a long time, so maybe the situation is improving.
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Feedback? I have [a discussion room in many apps](https://mikaela.info/discuss),
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or you can find me from a lot of the linked issues and there is also [issue tracker for this site](https://github.com/Mikaela/mikaela.github.io/issues).
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*TODO: if/when I return to this post, add a git changelog link here.*
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