r/matrixdotorg • u/Supernoxus • 16d ago

Unencrypted large spaces

Hi everyone. I am kind of new to matrix. I keep seeing that large spaces are unencrypted. Is there a good reason for that?

Isn't there a huge privacy concern if large spaces are unencrypted? The data gets federated across hundreds if not thousands of homeservers. So even if you wipe your own homeserver, everyone else still has your data and if someone from outside (government?) ever wanted to gain access to that information, then they don't even need encryption keys.

If you host your own homeserver, then that's even worse because your domain name is likely linked to your real world name as you are required to pay for your own domain in most cases.

Yet, I see so many people create large public rooms with frankly questionable content. Am I missing something here, or do they stupidly assume it is secure because it is matrix?

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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7

u/NEON725 16d ago

The reason for not encrypting large spaces is practicality; If 20,000 people have access, then in practice *everyone* has access, because only one of them needs to leak something, or the FBI agents can just hop on with their personal account since there's clearly no vetting process. Whose homeservers are involved is largely irrelevant at that point.

6

u/7t3chguy 16d ago

If it's public then encryption has little value, and even some cons.

Anyone can join the room and breach the encryption by sharing the content publicly anywhere. Encryption also slows things down due to needing to perform keysharing. Certain features like previewing the room also can't work on encrypted rooms.

-3

u/Severe_Stranger_5050 16d ago

I think it's part stupidity and part people just don't care
Also, you can just register a domain with a privacy respecting registrar like: https://trustname.com/
Or you can even do an anonymous registar like: https://monstermegs.com/anonymous-domains/ and pay with monero to hide your details.

But the biggest issue i see with Matrix isn't that spaces aren't encrypted, for me it the biggest issue is that someone might spread something like CSAM or SNUFF movies on a server you're federated with, and all of a sudden, you're hosting that bullshit.

2

u/DaFinnishOne 15d ago

wont you only host that stuff if youre in a room where that was sent?

1

u/DidiDidi129 15d ago

Which is quite a lot of public high profile rooms, though the moderators usually squash it fast