My understanding of encryption is that the point is that you don’t have to trust the people doing it. You just have to trust the security research community that proved that the algorithms/protocols work. Or if you’re a hardcore security guy yourself, you can review it yourself.
Also, my understanding of people is that what they seem like is no evidence for what kind of people they really are.
It’s a tricky line. On one hand, I agree that you don’t need to trust the person—just the code and the cryptographic model. But at the same time, if the dev is actively pushing misinformation or has a history of hostility toward marginalized groups, it erodes my confidence in their ethical choices about security and privacy. Trust isn’t just technical.
On the other hand, when people show they who they really are… you should believe them. There are some views that are either ignorant or bad will. I think evidence of those is a reasonable deal-breaker. And it’s perfectly ok if you have your line drown somewhere else as well.
My understanding of encryption is that the point is that you don’t have to trust the people doing it. You just have to trust the security research community that proved that the algorithms/protocols work. Or if you’re a hardcore security guy yourself, you can review it yourself.
Also, my understanding of people is that what they seem like is no evidence for what kind of people they really are.
You can use a perfect algorithm and still be insecure because the implementation was bad. You are trusting the SimpleX Chat devs to a degree.
It’s a tricky line. On one hand, I agree that you don’t need to trust the person—just the code and the cryptographic model. But at the same time, if the dev is actively pushing misinformation or has a history of hostility toward marginalized groups, it erodes my confidence in their ethical choices about security and privacy. Trust isn’t just technical.
On the other hand, when people show they who they really are… you should believe them. There are some views that are either ignorant or bad will. I think evidence of those is a reasonable deal-breaker. And it’s perfectly ok if you have your line drown somewhere else as well.