Session | Send Messages, Not Metadata. | Private Messenger
getsession.org
Session is a private messenger that aims to remove any chance of metadata collection by routing all messages through an onion routing network.

I’m aware that Session has been discussed twice before on this community, but the last thread was 6 months old so excuse my starting a new one.

There’s one big concern I wanted to bring up, which is the disagreements over whether it has forward secrecy. The spec says it does, but I’ve found two other sources saying it doesn’t:

https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-encrypted-messaging-apps/session/ (search for “Perfect Forward Secrecy removed”) https://www.securemessagingapps.com

Why are they saying this? Is there a critical caveat to Session’s forward secrecy (does it not have it in closed groups?), or are both sources just wrong?

(I’ve also heard one source say its closed groups are limited to 10 members which would be a showstopper for me and another source say they’re limited to 100 and the spec says 500 so i don’t know what to believe.)

I’m also concerned about it being built on top of a blockchain and cryptocurrency, not because I’m suspicious of cryptocurrency in general but because I find it difficult to understand, and because that it costs thousands of dollars to run a Session node seems to me like the network is bound to be owned exclusively by a few rich companies and investors. Is it? Is there a place I can see who owns how much of it, particularly how much is owned by the Oxen developers?

UPDATE: I believe I’ve just learned that Sesison DOES NOT have forward secrecy or deniability; the whitepaper linked on their CURRENT website is outdated. https://getsession.org/blog/session-protocol-technical-information

    • @Yujiri@lemmy.mlOP
      2•2 years ago

      So I’ve heard, but if the software doesn’t give such developers control over us (or does so to a lesser extent than its alternatives), that doesn’t really matter to me. If bad people want to write tools that good people can take advantage of, let them.

      • @schnuppikarotti@lemmy.ml
        3•2 years ago

        mhh i dont see it like this. open source is much more then the finished “product” there is a communitie around, they have a youtube channel, social media channels. the developers get more attention if the messenger is more used.

    • @schnuppikarotti@lemmy.ml
      1•2 years ago

      i mean at the end everyone has decide for themselve. i also tried session and found it really interesting. but then i found this and for me that means that i dont wanna use or support this project at all. and if people read this and say “i still wanna use it” then just do it. but then you at least know whats going on there

    • RandomSomeone
      1•2 years ago

      So? Who cares? What has your comment anything to do with software? The most up voted comment on a software post is some political whining. Why should anyone care about what devs are doing in their personal life? I didn’t see that level of criticism when Tusky devs blocked gab.com in the app for ideological reasons, which is actually very concerning. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?

    • Jack
      0•2 years ago

      Seems the alt-right developer for Lokinet has been told to cut that shit out. And he’s apparently not connected to Session’s development directly. Just some possible okay news lol.

      Very interesting though, hadn’t heard of that.

        • Jack
          0•2 years ago

          I found it by looking around that thread, where the OP tweeted that they had responded. I’ll try to find the exact link when I get home, but they said he wasn’t neurotypical and didn’t understand, which I don’t really believe because he didn’t say racist things on Twitter, but I also don’t have experience with that.

          And I just meant that he wasn’t directly working on session, but does develop other projects

    • @Lynda@lemmy.ml
      -1•2 years ago

      Is the developer really connected to the “alt-right”, or connected with free speech?

      • @schnuppikarotti@lemmy.ml
        1•2 years ago

        in the video they speak about alt right. i mean whats also a bit weird for me is, if i would be accused as company to have this connections to alt right. but its just the users of my services that have this connections and i cant control it. i still could put out a statement. like the devs from mastodon. their its also that their open source software is used by gab and now trump social. but their find a way that i trust them that they really dont like whats happening with their software. with session i dont have the feeling. correct me if there are information that the dev is not working there anymore because of the connections and this posts.