blog/_posts/2021-08-03-matrix-perfect-privacy-not.md

@@ -1,145 +0,0 @@
----
-layout: post
-title: "Inconsistency and privacy issues with Element, Matrix and Synapse"
-category: [english]
-tags: [english, matrix, privacy]
-redirect_from:
-  - /matrix.html
-  - /element.html
----
-
-*Having used Matrix since 2016 and hearing about its greatness without any
- issues so much, I wish to correct some misconceptions. I attempt to provide
- citations for everything and not name any other solution. I cannot discuss
- administrating experience due to not having any with Matrix personally.*
-
-# Element, what Element?
-
-Element is the defacto Matrix client. If you wish to get into Matrix, you
-will likely hear the advice to install Element or use it on the web.
-
-It comes with two problems:
-
-* you will likely register your account on the `matrix.org` homeserver and
-  later hear that you made a mistake in using it as it's overloaded and you
-  should instead use some other homeserver which would also be good for
-  healthy federation, but the interface doesn't suggest or offer you any
-  other servers.
-  * maybe in the future [your account will be decentralized and that won't matter](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/915)?
-* if you happen to be like me and use both Element Web and Element iOS, you
-  will notice they are wildly inconsistent. I cannot comment on Element
-  Android as my phone (Nokia 1 / TA-1047) is too weak powered for pleasant
-  Matrix experience and I don't use it much.
-
-Comparing the later two platforms, I imagine you will hit some of these
-problems sooner or later:
-
-* You see a link in the channel. If you were using Element Web or
-  possibly even Element Android you would immediately know what it was
-  about. However you use [Element iOS that never got URL preview support](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues/888)!
-* You hear of interesting room on another room and you wish to join it. You
-  touch the name wishing to get into there? What happens instead? You will get
-  an error message [cannot rejoin an empty room](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues/1066).
-  * I hope that doesn't annoy you and you wish to hear the workaround of
-    running `/join #room:example.net` by hand instead.
-* This may be a bit more rare one, but if you share rooms with bots, you may
-  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).
-* 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),
-  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)
-* I almost forgot, but the [new spaces](https://element.io/blog/spaces-the-next-frontier/)
-  just [don't exist on iOS](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues?q=label%3AA-Spaces+),
-  should you attempt to join or be invited to one, you will get a banner
-  saying that they aren't implemented yet and you cannot accept or reject
-  the invite unless you open Element Web to do that.
-* Another issue I am editing in hours later is pills, when you mention
-  someone on Element (Web), or someone else mentions someone, there is a clear
-  pill shape around their name and it can be clicked to get to their profile,
-  [but not on Element (iOS)](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues/3526)
-
-And that is probably enough of annoyances with Element iOS, I hope the
-situation will improve in foreseeable future there due to
-[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/)
-
-# You mentioned privacy?
-
-Yes, privacy is a big reason why Matrix is advertised and the lack of it is
-a fact you agree to by using Matrix or getting bridged to Matrix (which is
-out of scope for this blog post as it involves other protocols too much,
-whether you know Matrix or not).
-
-As with the internet in general, the most safe assumption is that once you
-post something it's there forever. It may be encrypted in a private Matrix
-room or it may be public in a public room, but it will most likely be there
-forever.
-
-Matrix does support [history retention if you are advanced enough to enable it](https://brendan.abolivier.bzh/matrix-retention-policies/),
-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)
-and as your room is hosted on every homeserver that has users in your room,
-have a single homeserver that hasn't explicitly enabled it and the room
-history never goes away. (If I am wrong, [please contact me](/discuss) as
-I have one private room where history goes away after 7 days, but another with the
-same configuration (nowadays 31 days though), which I can scroll as far back
-as I want.)
-
-*Technical note: sorry about calling reference homeserver implementation issue
- as a Matrix protocol issue.*
-
-You may say that this requires you to trust the homeserver admin anyway and
-that is true, I wish people could trust each other and even if someone
-modified their Synapse to never remove anything or had a client logging
-everything, they wouldn't throw that history to people who don't want to see it.
-
-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
-and if you changed the homeserver address in your copied link, it would still
-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/2228).
-
-*By the way Synapse is still a reference homeserver implementation and not
- Matrix protocol itself, so sorry about that for anyone technical reading this.*
-
-Do you use different names in different contexts? Like your Full Name in
-professional context, a nickname somewhere else and maybe what will be your
-real name after gender transitioning or even have a diffferent name in direct
-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).
-
-*Synapse didn't become Matrix protocol itself by the way, there are still other implementations!*
-
-This issue does have a potential solution [an API planned for room specific details (2015)](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/545)
-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),
-unless it just moves the issue to a different level.
-
-I think that was my biggest complaints on Matrix (or Synapse itself), that
-don't involve other protocols and I have personally experienced. My notes
-for this blog post include [Matrix not having real contacts list](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2228),
-but they didn't occur to me and I guess it has been doing fine enough without
-implementing those.
-
-If any of these issues is a dealbreaker for you or you don't want to hear
-a bad word about Matrix, you may be wondering what is the perfect flawless
-solution? I don't know, personally I don't think it may not exist and I don't
-want to enter discussing compromise solutions or other protocols in this post
-at all. This list also wasn't complete on what issues I have with Matrix
-(and so close to the end I don't want to dig for references) and I have
-specific wishes that no protocol offers (at least not consistently,
-such as using multiple names and knowing which name I am using where or managing
-50 different rooms with same operators everywhere, but [that may get answered by Matrix](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2962).)
-
-You may wonder was it nice of me to write so negative blog post. I find it
-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)
-and now I have finally done it, a bit over half an year late,
-spending a bit over an hour to it and I feel better after getting these problems
-out of my head and maybe they weren't so big after all. Up to you.
-
-Lastly I apologise to you-know-who-you-are for not titling this post "undefined",
-or even M.UNKNOWN (which I would have imagined to be one of the issues for me to write about, but
-I don't remember seeing it in a long time, so maybe the situation is improving.
-
-Feedback? I have [a discussion room in many apps](https://mikaela.info/discuss),
-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).
-
-* [Changelog, also known as git commit history](https://github.com/Mikaela/mikaela.github.io/commits/master/blog/_posts/2021-08-03-matrix-perfect-privacy-not.md)
-  * Clicksaver for edits done on day of publishing: I have fixed a typo resulting one
-    link being a 404 error, added mention on Element (iOS) not doing URL previews
-    and later added pills not being supported by it either. I didn't consider
-    [outdated emoji picker](https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues/4654)
-    worth mentioning here, but it came up in the same context as URL previews
-    and wasn't reported to upstream, so I might as well mention it in this part.