Dr Ian Preston

We're building the next web - the private web - and now we have funding for it! Thank you @NgiPointer @NGI4eu

We have a new release with lots of sync improvements and optimisations, especially on Windows and Android. github.com/Peergos/web-ui…

This was a lot of fun!

We have a new release out with automatic concurrent modification resolution, sync updates in the ui and a host of fixes and speed ups! Arbitrary renames with file duplicates are detected correctly in the sync client and use moves, not delete and upload. github.com/Peergos/web-ui…

📣🚨 BAT SIGNAL: A law in France that would mandate a backdoor in end to end encrypted communications is set for a vote within the next day, after some start-stop skirmishes.  The French Narcotraffic law would require encrypted communications providers—like Signal—create a backdoor by giving the government the ability to add themselves to any group or chat they like. In the name of (checks notes) fighting drug trafficking.  While those hyping this bad law have rushed to assure French politicians that the proposal isn’t’ ‘breaking encryption’ their arguments are as tedious as they are stale as they are laughable. For those catching up, let’s review the basics: end to end encryption must only have two ‘ends’—sender and recipient(s). Otherwise, it is backdoored. Whatever method is devised to add a ‘third end’ —from a perverted PRNG in a cryptographic protocol, to vendor-provided government software grafted onto the side of secure communications that allow said government to add themselves to your chats—it rips a hole in the hull of private communications and is a backdoor.  Indeed, the ghost participant proposal was roundly rebuked (humiliated, even) when it was first proposed in 2019 in the UK. The technical community was united, and it was never implemented in law or otherwise.  We cannot accept any backdoor, however it’s dressed up. Communications don’t stay within jurisdictional boundaries. Which means a hole created in France becomes a vector for anyone wanting to undermine Signal’s robust privacy guarantees, anywhere. Instead of contending with unbreakable math, they only have to compromise a French government employee, or the vendor-provided software used to sideload government operatives into your private chats.  This is why, as always, Signal would exit the French market before it would comply with this law as written. At this moment especially, there is simply too much riding on Signal, on our being able to forge a future in which private communication persists, to allow such pernicious undermining.  We hope—WE HOPE—that this callow, dishonest attack will fail, and will be the last. We would love to get back to the work of maintaining and improving our core technologies, instead of fighting legislation which is distinguished in nothing as much as its refusal to listen to decades of expert consensus in its drive to imperil global cybersecurity and the human right of privacy.

@PeteUK7 @wesstreeting @GwynneMP @AngelaRayner The irony is that they know what to do. They know Covid is still killing and disabling. They know Covid is airborne. They know good ventilation helps. We know they know! ⬇️

COVID is still here & wearing a high-quality, well-fitted mask protects our most vulnerable community members. A simple act of care can prevent serious health complications. Mask up in high-risk settings & reduce the spread ➡️ go.vic.gov.au/4giUF1B More tips below 1/2🧵

Labour is calling for action on ventilation in schools. See new Shadow Schools Minister @StephenMorganMP on his visit to Greenwich today 👇🏻

The Guardian have documented a year in my life living with #LongCovid. Please watch this short documentary to learn what it's like living with this debilitating disease and why we need urgent treatments. theguardian.com/society/video/…

Darren is a @TheGreenParty councillor who sadly stood down because of the impact of #LongCovid on his health. Watch his film 👇 As we learn more and more about this condition, it’s vital we do all we can to prevent and support. @TheGreenParty has clear policy on this.

@LindellYehuda If you can import a key then you cannot reason about the security of the source of the key.

Why does the Apple secure enclave not enable importing keys? The documentation (developer.apple.com/documentation/…) says that not being able to import or export keys is fundamental to security. I understand that for export, but for import this is very limiting.

Our Christmas gift to you is a Peergos sync client! github.com/Peergos/web-ui… This is a huge new release! The sync client lets you keep a local host folder in sync with a Peergos folder, allowing you to work offline on stuff using your normal native apps, and then sync later.

Wes Streeting blocked me after taking him to task over him receiving US private healthcare donations. Donations are effectively blood money because more people will die from medical malpractice as Streeting continues pushing for unqualified PAs to replace actual doctors in the NHS, and for what? To satiate the obscene profit motivations of US big Pharma. Trump will be very happy that the NHS is back on the table as part of a bargaining chip for the US/UK free trade deal. Look on the GMC website, for example, and there the “Duties of a doctor” are now referred to as “The duties of medical professionals registered with the GMC”—the word “doctor" has vanished. For nearly two centuries, this remit has served patients well. It ensures that anyone found to have impersonated a doctor can be struck off the register.  Starmer’s changed Labour Party are selling of the entire public sector, that growth he and Reeves keep banging on about is for the asset classes benefit only. prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/polic…

I have a rule for myself: “If you find yourself reaching for User Education as a solution, that shows you a flaw in your product that you should fix.”. ⤵️

We've just completed our 2nd security audit, thanks to the support of @NLnetFDN peergos.org/posts/security…

If low school attendance is due to “anxiety” or “truancy”, instead of actual illness… Then why are teacher absences so high too? And why do they directly correlate with pupil absence? Are teachers sitting around their mate’s house smoking vapes? #Schools #Education #Teachers

#CleanAir mitigations in healthcare will protect patients and #NHS staff Please sign, RT and share on Facebook/Instagram/Tiktok/Bluesky #CleanAirInHealthcare #stillmasking petition.parliament.uk/petitions/7003… @DavidFoxon2 @ThePOTSPostman @CovidJusticeUK @MattMcGorry @jnewsham #covid

If this is true it is unacceptable @wesstreeting @tobyperkinsmp pls sort it out and allow people who want to get novavax access to the current vaccine.

🚨Airborne transmission CATA Q: "Please can you explain why you so confidently and assertively felt the need to rule out airborne transmission so early in the pandemic?" Prof Sir Stephen Powis, National Medical Director NHS England. "This represented what we knew at that time."

#ItsCommonSense #GreenParty @TheGreenParty

@ChristopherA @csuwildcat Have you seen @Peergos 's work here?

@csuwildcat I definitely like personal datastores. I hope somehow it will be one of many kinds of endpoints (elided for privacy) that you can choose to commit to in a decentralized way and share when needed.

Jack Dorsey's #Block may be winding down #TBD and #Web5 efforts, but there are some good ideas worth preserving. I particularly like the idea of sharing decentralized documents to bootstrap #SSI via BitTorrent's mainline DHT. There is a limit of 1K, but that is perfect for XIDs (eXtensible Identifiers) using the elision privacy capabilities of Gordian Envelope: youtube.com/watch?v=lKVp5W…