Open source cars…
I feel like this would be more helpful than a lot of things
An open source and private chat app that everybody wants to use
Signal works. The adoption is fairly slow, but I’ve had friends slowly begin to use it.
Signal gets some things right, but others wrong, such as phone numbers and centralized architecture. As such, it doesn’t fit the “everybody wants to use” part.
WhatsApp uses phone numbers and a centralized architecture. Remind me how many people use it?
Seeing how the dumb community feels trapped now that Meta stopped supporting KaiOS, I can tell there are a lot of people that wish they could leave the service. A lot of spaces make you feel like you have to use it, not want to use it. I used a few months while I was in the UK, but after that I’ve been lucky enough to delete my account as the service was useless elsewhere where other places I lived, no one used it.
…That said, I now have issues with LINE as a defacto chat option locally that gets in the way. My account was crushed after they canceled LINE Lite which was 10× smaller with no bloat or trackers & I refused to “upgrade” (where like WhatsApp & Signal, one is forced to have a mobile device as a primary device). Largely I can inconvenience everyone by making them choose a different means of communication (with email be largely the only common denominator) but if I were dating again, I would inevitably be forced to use the unsafe app putting myself in the position a lot of WhatsApp users feel they are without effective choice.
“some people use” ≠ “everybody wants to use”
(And are you sincerely suggesting WhatsApp, which is run by one of the largest and most aggressive privacy invaders the world has ever known, as a privacy friendly application? I would suggest re-thinking that position if you want to be taken seriously.)
The guy I replied to is saying that not everyone wants to use Signal because it’s centralized and based on phone numbers. But billions of people use WhatsApp despite being exactly that. Signal nails the privacy stuff but obviously people don’t give a shit because they’re using WhatsApp anyway.
I’ve been using Signal since like 2016 and have not seen any appreciable adoption rate whatsoever within my social network.
I used to actively try to get people to use it but I got enough ambivalent or negative responses that I just stopped asking.
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Exactly. And I gave up trying even when it was “easier”. Not to mention, since it can’t do SMS anymore, I actually helped my mom. stop using it, because then she’d need 2 different messaging apps. She and I now use Google Messages to text and whatever Google is calling the integrated video chat app now.
Yeah, a new messaging app is definitely a hard sell for me if it’s data/wifi only. I have Discord for unimportant internet conversations that can wait for me to burn data and texting for important things like work because I get unlimited texts. Having a separate app for a couple of people would be annoying.
Signal is great. I miss when it worked with SMS. There are 2 E2EE SMS apps that I’m aware of, bit one is not well supported and the other needs quite a bit of UI work before it’s usable by the general public. Also, neither can be used as the default SMS app on Apple phones,but that’s not the app’s fault.
They are currently in bit trouble as their funds are gone
I don’t think they’re in trouble, they’re just talking about long term funding because it’s relevant. Can’t expand and get more funding without mentioning that you need it
Of the articles I saw about funding
- one was by Signal, estimating future costs
- one was by that Grayzone guy, misrepresenting where funds were from (said it was CIA lol), how much was being changed (title implied it was entirely CIA funded but it was a past, publicly documented investment by a government program)
Source?
This was the article that raised a small stir. Some question the motivation and accuracy of some of the statements. The grabber quote is:
The unprecedented disclosure’s motivation was simple - the platform is rapidly running out of money, and in dire need of donations to stay afloat.
I think he’s talking about this, but it’s very clearly just a normal fundraising pitch that doesn’t even hint at a current issue with funding.
One of their own posts. No motivation to research a link for you
I love it and have gotten everyone to want to use it?
Lucky you
Signal feels the closest, it’s basically equivalent to other messaging apps. Somewhat cleaner and easier to use IMO
The only downside is chat backups for people coming from Messenger, in particular those on iOS devices. Streamlining that process might get me to go “contact me on signal, I don’t check messenger often”, but right now I get why there’s a last bit of friction with my friends
WhatsApp has a similar limitation but they walk you through the backups process. Even then, they limit backups to google drive iirc. Signal could do something similar, but much better by explaining the process and opening up backup locations
Session is coming along nicely, and has true anonymous accounts. But that “everyone wants to use” requirenent is a killer.
The problem here is that a really private application would be p2p over i2p/TOR, but with people behind CG-NAT that is becoming quite troublesome
NFC payments app.
Payment industry regulations are just too much for an open source free project
Not sure if this already exists in some form, but I want something that always records where I’ve been. I am a very forgetful person and the Google maps timeline feature has been very helpful more than a handful of times. Unfortunately, it means that Google knows exactly where I’ve been also…
I just want to be able to check where I was the afternoon of a random Tuesday three years ago!
Someone mentioned GPSLogger & Location Map Viewer here: https://lemmy.ca/comment/5402752
I haven’t tried them yet, but that could work. I’d also love an easy-to-use version of this, it’s just so useful.
When did I last go to the doctor? What was that restaurant we ate at that night?
so helpful
This is something I’m very interested in too.
Something that produces a wealth of plausible web traffic on my connection and browser that woefully misleads anyone monitoring it as to what I actually am browsing. Rather than hiding my traffic or ensuring some hyper level of encryption I simply want to use maybe an LLM or something to create such a close facimilie to “normal” online traffic that my online fingerprint becomes useless as sub 5% of my traffic is actually real.
Essentially I want privacy through drowning out everything with noise. It seems like the harder the to unwind in the end if done in a clever way. That plus some basic security protections and I will feel fairly secure.
Signal to work for SMS again 🙄🙄🙄
For real! One of the things that made using Signal a non-issue for me was due to it being able to use SMS as a fall-back and therefore didn’t need me to push friends to also install another message app. I really only first installed it because it was the messaging app my local chapter of the SRA was using. I was excited that it did the shit I loved about the old Google Hangouts before they unnecessarily chose to break shit back out into three replacements. Being able to use a more feature rich messaging service when the people I am messaging also have it is awesome. But being able to still send a basic SMS from the same app without leaving is super nice. It is the main thing I always envied about how iMessage has worked basically forever.
Fortunately some of my friends and co-workers also have needed to install Signal for similar reasons I did or for remote therapy stuff. But it is so hard to get others to just install it just because it is privacy focused and since we already have Facebook Messenger/Discord/Snap/IG/Line and of course SMS. Also hate feeling like I am being pushy or annoying unless I am directly asked about apps to try or some specific reason.
I also have fond memories of using Gaim/Pidgin back in the day for being able to just have one IM client that could work with basically whatever any of my friends/contacts liked using. A universal chat/message client really seems like something that would be cool to see come back.
Sms isn’t secure or private, it doesn’t make sense to include it in a privacy focused messaging app.
I also would like to have a universal messaging client but sadly it doesn’t seem possible , just look at the recent reverse engineered iMessage apps, why would you waste all that effort reverse-engineering proprietary chat apps, when they can get (and will get) shut down by the service. Especially while better, open protocols exist.
I know right? Makes me so mad, I used to donate to them, but removing SMS is gonna kill uptake
I wish!!!
Do services count? Because in that case, ride-hailing. A replacement for services like Uber and Lyft.
A private ride hailing app sounds like a safety nightmare. It’s one of those things you want blazingly documented and auditable
I agree that data collection is a good security measure in this case. But privacy friendly does not necessarily mean there is no data collected. Important is that nothing is shared with 3rd parties and all data is well protected.
Safety features nessaseraly demand open and auditable by third parties.
We need to be able to ensure that abusers aren’t hopping around companies abusing passengers or drivers, for example. It’s hard to do that with complete privacy.
It’s one of the cases where strong regulations so third parties can’t do things with your data is important, but also sharing that data to protect yourself and others more vulnerable than you is important.
What’s wrong with taxi services?
From a client perspective Uber and Lyft don’t solve any issue that taxi services don’t. They may be more convenient/accessible by providing an app, but that’s not an unsolvable issue.
But from a privacy perspective taxis clearly have a leg up since you’re an anonymous customer.Off the top of my head, taxi services lack:
- Convenient hailing. A phone call works okay if you’re home, where there isn’t much noise and you speak the local language, but a web form is often much easier and less error-prone in other situations.
- Efficient coverage. Many areas either have sparse taxi coverage, or multiple taxi companies competing in an area, and if the one you call doesn’t have enough drivers available and nearby, you’re stuck waiting unreasonably long even if there are other ride options with better availability.
- Up-front journey-specific prices. We now have the technology to see what the total cost will be before we commit to a ride. We should be using it.
- A single point of hailing, where I can submit my location and destination, and be presented with my ride options from all the available providers.
- Accurate pick-up and drop-off time estimates. Even better with real-time taxi location.
- Quick arrival.
- Automated ride-sharing coordination among strangers.
- Fuel efficiency incentives. Most taxis I’ve taken have been heavy vehicles that guzzle petrol, passing the expense on to the environment and the customer.
I think most (maybe all) of this could be solved by something like a clearinghouse for taxi rides, effectively federating the various taxi services in an area, with a web app available for hailing.
So true! In Germany we have Blablacar and Flixbus / Flixtrain, which have soo much better services to travel cheaply. But its proprietary “install our app” garbage
Something that’s communtiy based and doesn’t fleece the drivers and riders so some asshole can have another yacht
https://aktuelltfokus.se/foraragd-taxi-app-utmanar-uber-och-bolt/ Sweden got a collective owned service :)
Android auto
There are some projects that already do this
A ridiculously user-friendly encrypted email default.
I’m so used to GPG, I no longer know which parts aren’t user friendly.
The hard part is getting used to it. How do I share my public keys? How do I use GPG (the program)? How do I access them easily? What do I do when I want to encrypt my mails on desktop (maybe Windows+Linux), laptop, and phone? It’s just relatively much work to gather the knowledge.
+ the fact there’re not many people using it
There are so many email clients, any email encryption system has an uphill battle to adoption. It’s easier to just build a new ecosystem.
DeltaChat?
Me getting ideas from this thread
please take them :)
I just want GoG but for movies
There are some apps on fdroid that aggregate shows and movies from several websites
Sorry I should have clarified.
I want to legally buy my movie paying it to the creators, and be able do do whatever I want with my copy with me knowing I bought it just for buying it and being allowed to Own it without it being a DVD, because I don’t want DVDs, because I live in 16m² and I move way to often, while keeping the concept of buying it
just torrent everything. it’s so damn convenient and easy nowadays. if they dont wanna give you an easy way to buy and keep their movies, fuck em.
Buy online and webrip? 🤔
But I wouldn’t buy anything anyway (and also, who is using DVDs these days? 🫥)
Some people have already advanced to me too but blue rays and scan them when proposing GoG but for minutes
A version of WhatsApp that doesn’t require full access to all your contacts to work properly. I have about 10 people I need to Whatapp with - I just want to add those people. Meta doesn’t need to know my Doctor’s phone number.
I would like a browser addon that drops poisoned data when surfing the web. Instead of trying to restrict how much of my data gets collected, spread useless data across their sites.
A local personal assistant that isn’t just focused on media consumption or purchasing. I want to ask about my most efficient route or ideal presents for my partner or a medical condition without it being data mined.
Wallet app that I can tap using NFC so I don’t have to carry my wallet around and lose it again. I really miss Google Pay after switching to GrapheneOS
