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Comment by diebeforei485 | Hacker News Reader

Twitter has said this is an early version that shouldn't be trusted yet - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1656570790039678976?s=20

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It was brought up in the article. Elon only posted that after the security lead for the messaging product publicly tweeted completely wrong info about the status of the promised security audit.

Also, trust in the privacy of messages is the entire point of E2E encrypted DMs. It's a pretty dumb strategy to launch that feature and then walk it back with a "oops we're beta testing, don't trust that while privacy thing yet." So either Twitter/Elon has a dumb strategy, or they're (still) making wildly silly blunders as a result of self-inflicted wounds. Either way, pretty compelling arguments to never trust this feature even once they say you can.

Coming from the man behind the FSD “beta”, this is par for the course; but I still find it questionable to turn this sort of feature on in prod (for paying customers, no less) while simultaneously admitting it’s not trustworthy.

Perhaps it depends on what is meant by untrustworthy, but I don't see how it's a downgrade for users. Or are your concerns just PR-related?

It's an improvement over the status-quo. But given what was communicated before the feature was launched, it's very easy to believe that users might believe that the expectations around privacy and security are stronger than they actually are. Ideally you don't need to put any meaningful trust in the service provider, but in this case you do.

Well, I think if comms have been over-zealous then a correction is appropriate. But either way, this just seems now commentary on their PR chops, rather than anything fundamental about their technical implementation, so I'll colour myself unworried again.

It's better than the current product where it's readable in plaintext to Twitter employees, and to some outside contractors as well.

For those who already use Twitter DM's (which is a lot of people), this is an improvement.

If a security feature can't be trusted it shouldn't be deployed. Increasing trust is its primary objective.

>BigCivilEngineeringFirm says the new road bridge opened yesterday is an early version that shouldn't be trusted yet

There are many, many software developers. There are vanishingly few software engineers

The primary objective is not what you want it to be or what you think it should be. Elon - through all his career, has demonstrated that the primary objective is to overpromise loudly and underdeliver quietly - creating news, getting attention, being an edgy 14yo trapped in the body of an adult diaper wearer.

I see. FSD for encryption. Got it now. Thanks.

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