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Meet the Developers Who Want To Build the Next Snapchat
Nerval's Lobster writes "Our lives online come with perils, whether from the NSA checking up on our digital communications, or the possibility of the wrong e-message going viral. Twitter, Facebook, Google, Instagram, and other social networks have collected all sorts of personal data about us, where we've been, what we're saying, what we like, and our friends. No wonder the idea of ephemeral messages — such as those sent via Snapchat and other services — is beginning to resonate, attracting lots of startups who want to service that very need. These creators of self-destructing message apps claim they don't care about monetization, and that their products are secure — but as so many apps from other startups have demonstrated, security is often a very porous thing, and government agencies are more than happy to fire off a warrant to see unread messages stored on a server. Lots of developers want to become the Snapchat (if it means they can take a multi-billion-dollar buyout), but in the case of vaporizing messages, they're tiptoeing into tricky territory."
> No wonder the idea of ephemeral messages ... self-destructing message
The entire concept is stupid. Screenshots. Or use your camera to photograph the screen if you must. Or run it in am emulator and do a screenshot of that.
If you send something to someone, you should assume that they can keep a copy of it. Dont like that? Dont send it.
Let's reword the headline to say what was really meant:
Attention whoring for an unoriginal idea.
I can't wait for the social media bubble to pop.
I misread the first sentence as "Our lives online come with penis", which given that they're talking about snapchat would have made more sense.
Wickr is pretty interesting: (based on their claims) nothing or very little is stored on the servers, and everything that is stored on the clients is encrypted. There is no possibility of recovery if you lose your passwords.
Telegram has a more "traditional" design, but it has also a client-to-client mode that claims to leave no trace on servers.
A big difference: Wickr is closed source but free to use, Telegram is a more open design with broader support and many different clients, web and desktop. Wickr is available for Android and iPhone and that's it.
Also, Telegram has cute graphics while Wickr looks terrible.
The problem with all of these kinds of things is that they're aiming to replace fundamental parts and protocols of the Internet and the Web, but those parts and protocols were not originally developed with a profit motive. No genuine replacement for things like telnet, SMTP, HTTP, IMAP, IRC, FTP, etc. will ever come out of an organization oriented purely towards a profit motive (which all “start-ups” are, just like mature business organizations). For all their huge success, even organizations like Google and Facebook have not been able to do this (no, not even SPDY), so why should a "start-up" be able to? Who, on Earth, would want them to?
There will always be a "next snapchat" a next facebook, a next myspace, a next IRC channel. Communication via the internet is a near fungible commodity. It's all free, and the only requirement is that the people you want to communicate with be on the same service. Considering that's a cost of a minute at most, once that cost is overcome by... whatever, then it's overcome. The cost that drives people away can be anything. Too many ads, the interface changes too much, insecure communication, anything.
Point is, for pure communication any service isn't far from being replaced. There's always going to be a "next". Go grab skype on your phone, it'll take 4 minutes at most. Or Kick. Or whatever. I'm not sure any will survive to make money unless someone like Microsoft or Facebook is dumb enough to buy you.
I don't want to meet them. I want to meet the investors that are willing to put money on building something useful. Something grand. Something revolutionary. Why do you think we care to meet people who want to build bad popular media to make a quick buck?
Inherent in security is what you are trying to keep something secure from... A child safety lock on a container of pills is an example of this... it keeps the pills out of the reach of small children that lack the strength or mental capacity to open the bottle. Once you get old enough to open the bottle it probably isn't as dangerous because you're probably not stupid enough to eat them like m&ms at that point.
There is security on ATMs and banking systems to keep thieves out internal or external. But they do not secure the system from government oversight or even employees of the bank.
Its about trust and control.
Who do you want kept out? What do you want controlled? Itemize it all. Then design your system.
If you wish to keep the NSA out... you need to decentralize. The NSA thrives on exploiting centralized information systems. Decentralize and they have to compromise a cloud of shifting unreliable systems each with information of no to very limited value. They won't do it. Its too much work for too little return.
If you want to keep some person you sent pictures of your genitals from uploading the information to a public gallery... Well... best option is to not send that message. But if you really feel you must... something like snap chat or similar will work against not terribly bright people. Anyone with a clue shouldn't have any trouble finding a program on the net advertised as being specifically able to scrape messages out of those programs.
So yeah... NSA... decentralize... stop that person from sharing your genital photos around... good luck. Just don't do it, dummy.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Or does it seem that "serious" tech development has been largely superseded by much more frivolous stuff like social networks, casual gaming, and crap like snapchat? They have their place, sure, but the prices being thrown about for what are after all pretty basic applications are absurd. Seems to me that much of the "value" of these companies is 99% hat and 1% cattle. Exasperated by these tech bubbles - because that's what all this is - they exalt a few lucky morons and do so much damage when they pop.
Why is everyone seemingly obsessed with trying to produce knock-offs of software that's already in a popularity decline?
"Is X the next Snapchat?" No, because people are already bored of Snapchat and moving on to whatever the latest tool for sending people semi-anonymous pictures of their genitals is.
The point is to have automatically self destroying communication, that in a normal use case doesn't stay anywhere to linger around. Pretty much like normal telephone conversation, yes, the other end may record it, yes the goverment may record it, but if they don't do it while it happens they can't get it half a year later when they for some reason develop in interest for you. The idea is not bad. You could even let the receiver tag some messages as "keep 24h" or "keep forever", as long as the default case is "gone in sixty seconds", or when you stop reading it.
Let's reword the headline to say what was really meant:
Attention whoring for an unoriginal idea.
Okay so they build the next snap chat. What do they do the next month? Is there anything in snap chat that could not be built in 1 month by a small team? Same thing with instagram or whatsapp. What is special about those apps is simple they were there before someone else thought to do them, and the implementations were good enough to entice people to use it. Making another one? sure not a problem. But without any market share how are you going to pay the lawyers.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
There is an open source project for a skype replacement by the name of Tox. I'd much rather hear about that.
... because I can't see anything anywhere else (wtf is this post?) I figured maybe this might be worth mentioning:
Yesterday Moxie Marlinspike announced a new version of TextSecure: https://whispersystems.org/blo...
TextSecure is an encrypted messaging tool - currently for Android, but iOS is in the works. It is open source and has a high focus on privacy and security.
I encourage people to check it out - if you want to Snapchat securely and privately, then using an open source tool that isn't maintained or built by some giant corporatrox that is simply trying to get bought out by Facebook might be a good idea.
Hell, we ALL want to be the guy that develops some dumb thing someone else buys for billions of dollars.
Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
You might wind up with a bag full of helium over your head.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Remember, if you're writing the app to get rich, make sure it's for mobile use only, that way you get a registered phone number and a confirmed human.
Also make sure the app leaks info like a sieve and write the TOS (which no one reads) to include the fact you're going to use all their post, photos, and contacts.
The better your app is at data rape, the more Facebook will pay for it.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Watching a Y-Combinator graduation a huge snooze-fest. However you'd be fabulously rich if you discover the true original. Like Twitter rising to to top of hundreds of messaging startups.
No wonder the idea of ephemeral messages ... self-destructing message
The entire concept is stupid. Screenshots. Or use your camera to photograph the screen if you must. Or run it in am emulator and do a screenshot of that.
If you send something to someone, you should assume that they can keep a copy of it. Dont like that? Dont send it.
Or to put it another way, this illusion of privacy simply doesn't exist. Seeing how many security researchers and other "tech pros" have come out and shown besides being able to copy the file, if your the receiver, you can tear it apart and still can access to it.
The entire concept is stupid
I disagree. This concept is extremely important to me. Just because an idea is stupid to you and 5mods does not mean it doesn't work for the rest of us.
To me, the ephemeral message is getting us back towards normal face2face interaction, by default, nothing is saved. There is nothing stopping your friends and co-workers from putting their phones on record or even following you around with a video camera. What's important is that by default, our failed jokes and Freudian slips are simply forgotten, instead of being added to your permanent record that a potential employer, divorce lawyer or even automated government spy tool might get access to for your detriment.