Matrix

3974 readers

43 users here now

An open network for secure, decentralized communication

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

k_o_t@lemmy.ml

Matrix Metadata Problem: the server sees everything except your messages (dfrws.org)

submitted 21 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) by verifytheposter@leminal.space to c/matrix@lemmy.ml

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Matrix Metadata Problem: the server sees everything except your messages

People pick Matrix because of end-to-end encryption. But E2EE only protects message content — everything around it is plaintext.

The server sees:

Your ID, IP, client type and version, device you use
Your presence, typing status, read receipts
Which rooms you join and when you join/leave
Who else is in those rooms → your entire social graph
Room names, topics, avatars (all plaintext state)
For every message: who sent it, which room, a millisecond timestamp, type, size

And federation copies most of that to every other server whose users are in the room. Your "social footprint" isn't one copy — it's as many as there are servers.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago

I wonder if there is a more practical solution of having matrix servers just be encrypted message routers. Maybe even encrypt the specific users address by the home server and then have federated servers just build routing tables for each other.

So my client sends an unencrypted header saying "send this to server A" with the specific user address being encrypted with Server A's public cert, the message content stays encrypted by the users pub cert. The message gets routed over to there distant server, user address decrypted on server, content decrypted on client.

Have server data like rooms, typing status, etc just be private messages ment for users sent by the distant server it's self. Home server only sees the rooms it's managing then.