[tor-talk] TIMB vs TextSecure

[Felix Eckhofer]

Hey.

Am 01.03.2014 08:23, schrieb Gordon Morehouse:
> With the news hitting some tech sites about TIMB, I went digging
> around briefly to find the reasoning for rolling something anew rather
> than backing e.g. TextSecure. (I know there are serious questions
> about the security of Telegram.)
> 
> I'm sure there is a good reason, but what is it?

Using Tor gives you a few properties that no other instant messaging 
solution can currently provide.

  - The IM server can not learn your IP.
  - A network observer can not learn that you are using IM (just that you 
are using Tor).
  - You cannot block the IM service without blocking Tor.

Furthermore, there are (in my opinion) still some serious problems with 
TextSecure, most importantly:

  - Only phone numbers as identifiers.
  - Sends your address book to the server in full (hashed, but that 
doesn't mean anything for phone numbers). No opt-out if you want to use 
the push transport.
  - Requires Google Play to be installed and uses GCM for notifications.

Though moxie has plans to address these problems, they currently exist.


felix