Tor messenger BETA was released

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https://dist.torproject.org/tormessenger/0.1.0b3/ - beta 3.

What’s really nice is that it can use existing networks:

It seems (I haven’t really used it yet) if one is okay with using one of those large networks, there’s no need for a separate “crypto identity”.

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Be good if SAFE could use existing chat clients like this. Is that feasible @Viv?

Would that not remove some security, making it the lowest common denominator. i.e. If I know your email address then I can get your tor identity etc. Suppose for fully public ID’s you want really public it is OK but not for ID’s you want anonymous or partially public (just yer pals).

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Definitely, if one has registered on one of those popular ones then there’s (at least) a valid email address. But don’t forget that FB, for example, lets you access and register completely over Tor. So using ID’s from those larger networks one can be pretty secure, and pseudo-anonymous. I see the value in the ability to participate in and take advantage of reputation networks tied to one’s account or (Google Talk) email address.

IRC can be anonymous because you can use any server out there, probably including those that operate on Tor.

Using / expanding on existing clients for UI is certainly possible. External service integrations where the network merely offers a secure transport layer thats a whole other question.

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Two more things about using this with non-centralized accounts. Some XMPP servers

  • Allow anonymous registration over Tor
  • Force TLS encryption between the client and server
  • Force off-the-record mode in the messenger

Example: