[liberationtech] Fwd: Re: The Vibe App, Anonymous GeoSocial Media

[Nathan of Guardian]

Just completing the thread here re: Vibe security. In short, there is
none, and there is ambiguous policy around data retention and privacy. I
hope I have deterred them from using the word "Anonymous" in their
marketing from here on out, but we will see.

In short, Vibe should *not* be recommended for any situations where
there is any risk of surveillance or subpoena.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [liberationtech] The Vibe App, Anonymous GeoSocial Media
Date: 	Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:59:57 -0500
From: 	Don Cadora <marketing at vibe-local.com>
To: 	Michael Rogers <m-- at gmx.com>
CC: 	nathan at guardianproject.info



Hey Michael and Nathan,

So I sent Nathan's comments to Hazem, our developer, and he told me that
no.... the network isn't secure.

So I guess I'll have to be careful, especially when communicating to
groups that are discussing truly anonymous technology, in how I describe
Vibe. Occupy Wall Street uses it but probably mainly because of its
geolocation capability.

It's anonymous only on a user to user basis. All posts are stored on a
database, and although there is no registration, someone on the back end
can see all the posts connected to one user. And thus deduce who the
user is?

And no, the network isn't secure yet, meaning if someones computer is
being tracked, what they're doing on our network would be known.

Hazem is giving your feedback to the other developers to consider in the
future. But for now I think this technology offers only social
anonymity, not security.

Guess I have a lot to learn. (Me, Community Manager. Not developer.)
Thanks again... I'll probably do a followup with the whole list.

Cheers,

Don

On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 6:45 PM, Michael Rogers <m-- at gmx.com
<mailto:m-- at gmx.com>> wrote:

    Hi Don,

    On 17/01/12 22:38, Don Cadora wrote:
    > Vibe is anonymous. Users can see where you are and what you have
    to say,
    > but not who you are. Unless you want them to. Many users opt to
    tweet their
    > Vibe posts while others create a custom Vibe signature.

    Can I second Nathan's request for you to elaborate on the meaning of
    "Vibe is anonymous"? Does the app communicate with the Vibe server? Are
    connections between the app and the server encrypted? Does the server
    keep logs? How does the server determine the user's location?

    Thanks,
    Michael