Is there a way to know if a Matrix server is using synapse or dendrite, as a user? Because unless you’re only communicating with self-hosted instances, that creates a problem.
The problem is federation in general. This is exactly why it’s a general privacy and GDPR nightmare… even if you hate corporations and use all alternative stuff, you’re still handing all your data over to them in the end anyways, because you (or most other) servers you federate with, federate with them too. And when servers (like matrix.org) use MITM-as-a-service providers like Cloudflare, they can see all the TLS-decrypted data too. Even with e2ee enabled for a room, the only thing that’s encrypted is the message itself (not the sender, or timestamps, etc.), basically there’s lots of other metadata that can be gathered without the message contents.
There’s also a big problem with servers defederating from each other, so in that case you never really know who or if anyone else is even seeing your messages… basically you’re just choosing which wind to piss into.
There is zero requirement to use any server or service associated with either New Vector or the Matrix Foundation.
There is also zero requirement to use the server (synapse, dendrite) or client (Element) implementations developed by these guys.
For example, I use conduwuit for my home server, with neochat and fluffychat clients, and they talk using published APIs and nothing else…
Matrix is just in its baby stages and will get better. Something this complicated takes a while to develop.
No, Matrix is just a privacy disaster that is run by a for profit company.
Is there a way to know if a Matrix server is using synapse or dendrite, as a user? Because unless you’re only communicating with self-hosted instances, that creates a problem.
The issues claimed about Synapse here were literally addressed over four years ago.
The problem is federation in general. This is exactly why it’s a general privacy and GDPR nightmare… even if you hate corporations and use all alternative stuff, you’re still handing all your data over to them in the end anyways, because you (or most other) servers you federate with, federate with them too. And when servers (like matrix.org) use MITM-as-a-service providers like Cloudflare, they can see all the TLS-decrypted data too. Even with e2ee enabled for a room, the only thing that’s encrypted is the message itself (not the sender, or timestamps, etc.), basically there’s lots of other metadata that can be gathered without the message contents.
There’s also a big problem with servers defederating from each other, so in that case you never really know who or if anyone else is even seeing your messages… basically you’re just choosing which wind to piss into.