Tsatnosk is a user on manowar.social. You can follow them or interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse.
@inmysocks There's a lot of blank spoace in the left column under the toot entry box.
Maybe there should be a warning that "Not to be used for private communication. DM's aren't private."
@unorigmoniker I like this idea.
@inmysocks @unorigmoniker Or "DM's are private but not secret."
Tsatnosk
@zatnosk
@inmysocks @unorigmoniker @gamehawk or (a tiny bit) more poeticly: "DMs are only as private as a paper envelope".
@unorigmoniker @gamehawk @zatnosk for a dm it isn't immediately obvious what it says, there has to be some action to read it. @-mentions would be more like a post-card.
@inmysocks @zatnosk @gamehawk Yes, but, since a DM can be read by any node admin, they're more akin to Email and a postcard (since your letter carrier can read your postcards).
@inmysocks @gamehawk @unorigmoniker As a node admin I still have to open the database (paper envelope) and find the message or use a special tool (letter opener) to easily open it. That's why I said envelope.
It's only private as long as anyone who handles it doesn't choose to open up and look.
Also, if I sent a DM to my friend, only the admin(s) of his instance (or mine = me) actually have the message in database. Google doesn't get to read.
@zatnosk @inmysocks @gamehawk Users are rliant upon the honesty of the node admins. I think it provides a false sense of security to claim DMs are any more secure than a postcard to be honest.
@inmysocks @gamehawk @unorigmoniker how is "a letter made of paper in the admins hands" a too safe metaphor? Any privacy based on that is purely based on trusting everyone who handles the letter.
Also, unless you actually build a tool for it, it's not trivial to find and read any given message - yes, it's not encrypted, but it still takes some effort, unlike holding a postcard?
Sorry if I'm being an ass about it, but I like the letter metaphor.
@zatnosk @inmysocks @gamehawk You and I might just have to agree to disagree on this one salient point.
Letters are sealed in envelopes that can't legally be opened except by the recipient or under court order.
A postcard has its contents visible to everyone that handles the piece whether or not someone chooses to read the contents or not.
I've been a sysadmin since 1994 and before that a BBS sysop and now an InfoSec pro since 1999 to know what a letter and a postcard is.
@inmysocks @gamehawk @unorigmoniker sure, let's just disagree. But the just because letters are illegal to open, doesn't make them more secure - you just *trust* the other party to not break a promise / the law.
@zatnosk @inmysocks @gamehawk Postal Service Inspectors are nobody to mess with. They will fuck you up. If there's one thing that's taken very seriously it's the sanctity and security of our mail.
@zatnosk @inmysocks @gamehawk I think you mean postcard, no?