Nostr Web Client

There is no perfect privacy on the internet. Better use in-person communication.

Nostr, specifically, was designed to allow public communication, so trying to fit privacy in it feels somewhat wrong.

Still, Nostr can do a reasonable enough job at privacy, we just need more and better software but we're lacking developers (and users to justify development) at this point.

What do you mean by privacy, though?

Latrica 10mo ago 💬 1

Thanks. I know there’s no 100% privacy on the internet. The internet was created by the US government. You’ll never be able to fully “hide” in the house they built. I always advocate for in-person communication for the most private things. Anything sent over a “wave” is never 100% secure. But I still do things in an online world while understanding the risks and issues. I’ve said a similar comment about in-person communication in the past. I get it.

With that said, I’m simply sharing what others might want and expect in a digital world. I don’t mind public communication. At the same time, online harassment and bullying is real. Stalking too. Throw in spam and bots and people might not like it.

Full Privacy = A random stalker can’t see a user’s posts. A random stalker cannot comment on a user’s post. A random stalker can’t follow a user.

This is the type of privacy available on other social media platforms. This is what others would expect. This is what they’re used to.

With better software and developers, is the above “full privacy” option possible on Nostr? It can be a paid option. A premier service, which can also create a monetization/revenue model. People will pay for premier service (in this case privacy) if the service AND experience is top notch.

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Discussion

fiatjaf 10mo ago 💬 1

I think you're talking about many different things and putting them all under the same broad term "privacy".

We can offer reasonable protection against stalkers and harassment, that has been one of my biggest worries for a while. The solution goes through flexible and dynamic relay selection. I've been trying to raise this with other developers and users. Clients need to deal much better with custom relays, relay feeds, browsing relays and picking and sharing relays and relay sets for different use cases. https://jumble.social/ is going in the right direction. https://github.com/mikedilger/gossip has many of the necessary tools already. Apparently https://coracle.social, https://nosotros.app and https://damus.io/notedeck/ are also making some moves, but I don't know for sure if any of these share the same vision.

Latrica 10mo ago 💬 1

The broad term “privacy” is what others expect. Ask users what privacy means to them if you complete user research. I’ve done the research.

Let me try again in another way…

Let’s assume I want to create my own client. And let’s assume others don’t share the same vision. And let’s assume I have my own developers. And let’s assume I have enough users who want this feature. I want to know if the following 3 things are possible on Nostr.

*A random stalker can’t see a user’s posts, images, videos, etc.* Is this possible on Nostr if I had the right software, relays, and developers. Yes or no?

*A random stalker cannot comment on a user’s post.* Is this possible on Nostr if I had the right software, relays, and developers. Yes or no?

*A random stalker can’t follow a user.*

Is this possible on Nostr if I had the right software, relays, and developers. Yes or no?

fiatjaf 10mo ago 💬 1

1) Yes, if the user posts on a restricted relay like https://lockbox.fiatjaf.com/ then the stalker won't be able to see. For this to work perfectly we just need a bigger move in the ecosystem to outbox model and that the remaining popular relays (nos.lol) adopt NIP-70.

2) Anyone can comment about anything they see, the question is who is going to see the comments. If a user specifies inbox relays that are unaccessible by the stalker and then only reads from such relays then the stalker will only be left to comment on other relays that no one -- or at least no the target user anyway -- won't read.

3) To "follow" just mean to read someone's posts, so this is the same as 1.

Latrica 10mo ago

Thank you for answering my questions and elaborating. So privacy to a degree can be achieved. (Even though you told me it’s not possible 🤔). I knew there was some type of measures that could be implemented. 🫂

Are there any wishlist things you would like to see accomplished regarding privacy? What bigger moves would you like to see in the ecosystem? It can be about anything including privacy. And how could they possibly be accomplished or implemented? Basically, tell me your wishlist things and the potential solutions.