From 07c779952379e2d1a292843e974241bed5f33826 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Evgeny Poberezkin <2769109+epoberezkin@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2022 19:30:17 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] reduce text in readme (#525) * reduce text in readme * update "why" * typo Co-authored-by: JRoberts <8711996+jr-simplex@users.noreply.github.com> * dot Co-authored-by: JRoberts <8711996+jr-simplex@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: JRoberts <8711996+jr-simplex@users.noreply.github.com> --- README.md | 39 +++++++++++++++++------------- docs/{COMPARISON.md => SIMPLEX.md} | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 56 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-) rename docs/{COMPARISON.md => SIMPLEX.md} (61%) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 11964c6bc..22291c674 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -24,37 +24,42 @@ - 🚀 [TestFlight preview for iOS](https://testflight.apple.com/join/DWuT2LQu) with the new features 1-2 weeks earlier - **limited to 10,000 users**! - 🖥 Available as a terminal (console) app / CLI on Linux, MacOS, Windows. -## SimpleX unique approach to privacy and security +## Why privacy of communications matter -Everyone should care about privacy and security of their communications - even ordinary conversations can put you in danger. +Everyone should care about privacy and security of their communications - ordinary conversations can put you in danger even if you are innocent. + +One of the most shocking stories is the experience of [Mohamedou Ould Slahi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamedou_Ould_Slahi) that he wrote about in his memoir and that is shown in The Mauritanian movie. He was put into Guantanamo camp, without trial, and was tortured there for 15 years after a phone call to his relative in Afghanistan, under suspicion of being involved in 9/11 attacks, even though he lived in Germany since 10 years prior to the attacks. + +This is not enough to use an end-to-end encrypted messenger, we all should use the messengers that protect the privacy of our personal networks - who we are connected with. + +## SimpleX unique approach to privacy and security ### Full privacy of your identity, profile, contacts and metadata -**Unlike any other existing messaging platform, SimpleX has no identifiers assigned to the users** - it does not use phone numbers (like Signal or WhatsApp), domain-based addresses (like email, XMPP or Matrix), usernames (like Telegram), public keys or even random numbers (like all other messengers) to identify its users - we do not even know how many people use SimpleX. - -To deliver the messages instead of user identifiers that all other platforms use, SimpleX uses the addresses of unidirectional (simplex) message queues. Using SimpleX is like having a different email address or a phone number for each contact you have, but without the hassle of managing all these addresses. In the near future SimpleX apps will also change the message queues automatically, moving the conversations from one server to another, to provide even better privacy to the users. - -This approach protects the privacy of who are you communicating with, hiding it from SimpleX platform servers and from any observers. You can further improve your privacy by configuring your network access to connect to SimpleX servers via some overlay transport network, e.g. Tor. +**Unlike any other existing messaging platform, SimpleX has no identifiers assigned to the users** - not even even random numbers. This protects the privacy of who are you communicating with, hiding it from SimpleX platform servers and from any observers. [Read more](./docs/SIMPLEX.md#full-privacy-of-your-identity-profile-contacts-and-metadata). ### The best protection against spam and abuse -As you have no identifier on SimpleX platform, you cannot be contacted unless you share a one-time invitation link or an optional temporary user address. Even with the optinal user addresses, while they can be used to send spam contact requests, you can change or completely delete it without losing any of your connections. +As you have no identifier on SimpleX platform, you cannot be contacted unless you share a one-time invitation link or an optional temporary user address. [Read more](./docs/SIMPLEX.md#the-best-protection-against-spam-and-abuse). ### Complete ownership, control and security of your data -SimpleX stores all user data on client devices, the messages are only held temporarily on SimpleX relay servers until they are received. - -We use portable database format that can be used on all supported devices - we will soon add the ability to export the chat database from the mobile app so it can be used on another device. - -Unlike servers of federated networks (email, XMPP or Matrix), SimpleX servers do not store user accounts, they simply relay messages to the recipients, protecting the privacy of both parties. There are no identifiers or encrypted messages in common between sent and received traffic of the server, thanks to the additional encryption layer for delivered messages. So if anybody is observing server traffic, they cannot easily determine who is communicating with whom (see [SimpleX whitepaper](https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplexmq/blob/master/protocol/overview-tjr.md) for the known traffic correlation attacks). +SimpleX stores all user data on client devices, the messages are only held temporarily on SimpleX relay servers until they are received. [Read more](./docs/SIMPLEX.md#complete-ownership-control-and-security-of-your-data). ### Users own SimpleX network -You can use SimpleX with your own servers and still communicate with people using the servers that are pre-configured in the apps or any other SimpleX servers. +You can use SimpleX with your own servers and still communicate with people using the servers that are pre-configured in the apps or any other SimpleX servers. [Read more](./docs/SIMPLEX.md#users-own-simplex-network). -SimpleX platform uses an open protocol and provides SDK to create chat bots, allowing implementation of services that users can interact with via SimpleX Chat apps – we are really looking forward to see what SimpleX services can be built. +## For developers -If you are considering developing with SimpleX platform, whether to build chat bot service for SimpleX apps users or to integrate SimpleX Chat library in your mobile apps, please get in touch for any advice and support. +We plan that SimpleX platform will grow into the platform for any distributed Internet applications, allowing to build any services that people can access via chat, with custom web-based UI widgets that anybody with a basic HTML/CSS/JavaScript knowledge can create in a few hours. + +You already can: + +- use SimpleX Chat library to integrate chat functionality into your apps. +- use SimpleX Chat bot templates in Haskell to build your own chat bot services (TypeScript SDK is coming soon). + +If you are considering developing with SimpleX platform please get in touch for any advice and support. ## News and updates @@ -90,7 +95,7 @@ Read more about [installing and using the terminal app](./docs/CLI.md). SimpleX is a client-server network with a unique network topology that uses redundant, disposable message relay nodes to asynchronously pass messages via unidirectional (simplex) message queues, providing recipient and sender anonymity. -Unlike P2P networks, all messages are passed through one or several server nodes, that do not even need to have persistence. In fact, the current [SMP server implementation](https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplexmq#smp-server) uses in-memory message storage, persisting only the queue records. SimpleX provides better metadata protection than P2P designs, as no global participant identifiers are used to deliver messages, and avoids [the problems of P2P networks](./docs/COMPARISON.md#comparison-with-p2p-messaging-protocols). +Unlike P2P networks, all messages are passed through one or several server nodes, that do not even need to have persistence. In fact, the current [SMP server implementation](https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplexmq#smp-server) uses in-memory message storage, persisting only the queue records. SimpleX provides better metadata protection than P2P designs, as no global participant identifiers are used to deliver messages, and avoids [the problems of P2P networks](./docs/SIMPLEX.md#comparison-with-p2p-messaging-protocols). Unlike federated networks, the server nodes **do not have records of the users**, **do not communicate with each other** and **do not store messages** after they are delivered to the recipients. There is no way to discover the full list of servers participating in SimpleX network. This design avoids the problem of metadata visibility that all federated networks have and better protects from the network-wide attacks. diff --git a/docs/COMPARISON.md b/docs/SIMPLEX.md similarity index 61% rename from docs/COMPARISON.md rename to docs/SIMPLEX.md index 9fe344f1e..aebf27436 100644 --- a/docs/COMPARISON.md +++ b/docs/SIMPLEX.md @@ -18,6 +18,40 @@ Proposed stack of protocols solves these problems by making both messages and co See [SimpleX whitepaper](https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplexmq/blob/master/protocol/overview-tjr.md) for more information on platform objectives and technical design. +## Why use SimpleX + +## SimpleX unique approach to privacy and security + +Everyone should care about privacy and security of their communications - even ordinary conversations can put you in danger. + +### Full privacy of your identity, profile, contacts and metadata + +**Unlike any other existing messaging platform, SimpleX has no identifiers assigned to the users** - it does not use phone numbers (like Signal or WhatsApp), domain-based addresses (like email, XMPP or Matrix), usernames (like Telegram), public keys or even random numbers (like all other messengers) to identify its users - we do not even know how many people use SimpleX. + +To deliver the messages instead of user identifiers that all other platforms use, SimpleX uses the addresses of unidirectional (simplex) message queues. Using SimpleX is like having a different email address or a phone number for each contact you have, but without the hassle of managing all these addresses. In the near future SimpleX apps will also change the message queues automatically, moving the conversations from one server to another, to provide even better privacy to the users. + +This approach protects the privacy of who are you communicating with, hiding it from SimpleX platform servers and from any observers. You can further improve your privacy by configuring your network access to connect to SimpleX servers via some overlay transport network, e.g. Tor. + +### The best protection against spam and abuse + +As you have no identifier on SimpleX platform, you cannot be contacted unless you share a one-time invitation link or an optional temporary user address. Even with the optinal user addresses, while they can be used to send spam contact requests, you can change or completely delete it without losing any of your connections. + +### Complete ownership, control and security of your data + +SimpleX stores all user data on client devices, the messages are only held temporarily on SimpleX relay servers until they are received. + +We use portable database format that can be used on all supported devices - we will soon add the ability to export the chat database from the mobile app so it can be used on another device. + +Unlike servers of federated networks (email, XMPP or Matrix), SimpleX servers do not store user accounts, they simply relay messages to the recipients, protecting the privacy of both parties. There are no identifiers or encrypted messages in common between sent and received traffic of the server, thanks to the additional encryption layer for delivered messages. So if anybody is observing server traffic, they cannot easily determine who is communicating with whom (see [SimpleX whitepaper](https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplexmq/blob/master/protocol/overview-tjr.md) for the known traffic correlation attacks). + +### Users own SimpleX network + +You can use SimpleX with your own servers and still communicate with people using the servers that are pre-configured in the apps or any other SimpleX servers. + +SimpleX platform uses an open protocol and provides SDK to create chat bots, allowing implementation of services that users can interact with via SimpleX Chat apps – we are really looking forward to see what SimpleX services can be built. + +If you are considering developing with SimpleX platform, whether to build chat bot service for SimpleX apps users or to integrate SimpleX Chat library in your mobile apps, please get in touch for any advice and support. + ## Comparison with other protocols | | SimpleX chat | Signal, big platforms | XMPP, Matrix | P2P protocols |