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How do you deal with Privacy?
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Posted by Luhmann
Aug 29, 2021 at 03:20 PM
I meant to add that Logseq eventually plans to offer their own e2e service, like Obsidian has, but there is currently no timeline on when that would be or what it would cost.
Posted by satis
Aug 29, 2021 at 10:10 PM
Luhmann wrote:
>Currently I’m using
>Logseq via iCloud Drive which, while encrypted in transit and on the
>sever, is not “true” e2e since apple holds the keys to decrypt this if
>they want (or if the government wants).
You’re saving a Logseq encrypted file to iCloud (or Dropbox/Gdrive/Github) which serves the encrypted file to connecting devices which decrypt locally. There’s nothing special in the cloud that can the access encrypted file without breaking the encryption. So you really have nothing to be concerned about.
Also, I think you might be accidentally conflating encrypted files sitting in the cloud with what happens with encrypted Apple text messages. Messages in iCloud syncs your messages between devices and it is end-to-end encrypted however if you choose to use *iCloud Backup* to back your device iCloud gets a copy of your key that can decrypt the messages. This means they also could be unlocked by Apple if ordered to by government subpoena.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209110
You must *disable iCloud backup entirely* if you want to remove Apple’s access to your e2e messages. (This is not a massive burden - you can back up locally/encrypted to your Mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/back-up-and-restore-your-device-mchla3c8ed03/mac and even extract all your messages using a Mac app like iMazing.)
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303
If you look at that last link you’ll see that everything of theirs (calendar and contact details are encrypted, as are your Safari bookmarks, Notes, Photos, health data, etc) is e2e encrypted and they have no access to it with the exceptions of Mail (which is never encrypted) and Messages.
Why did they do this with Messages? Some have speculated that it’s because of pressure from the FBI (denied by those in contact with people at Apple https://daringfireball.net/2020/01/reuters_report_on_apple_dropping_plan_for_encrypted_icloud_backups ) and Apple also had a prosaic yet important customer issue of customers with encrypted backups losing their passwords and Apple being unable to help them. For the vast majority of people, the risk of data loss is significantly — significantly — higher than the risk of data theft or subpoena.
TLDR: for encrypted Logseq files don’t worry about it.
Posted by Luhmann
Aug 30, 2021 at 06:27 AM
No I don’t use encryption in Logseq. It currently isn’t well implemented and breaks some other features, like the new versioning/backup tool.
Posted by Luhmann
Aug 30, 2021 at 06:33 AM
You need to go back and read that link again. Apple distinguishes between two kinds of encryption:
(a) encrypted in transit and on the server
(b) true e2e encryption
Only items listed under the section titled “End-to-end encrypted data” are actually e2e.
satis wrote:
>
>https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303
>
>If you look at that last link you’ll see that everything of theirs
>(calendar and contact details are encrypted, as are your Safari
>bookmarks, Notes, Photos, health data, etc) is e2e encrypted and they
>have no access to it with the exceptions of Mail (which is never
>encrypted) and Messages.
Posted by Luhmann
Aug 30, 2021 at 06:37 AM
Regarding encrypting Logseq data locally. If your laptop is secure and the drive itself is encrypted (using, filevault from apple, for instance). There is really no point. It also defeats some of the utility of having an app that can read and write to plain text files. I access those files from Obsidian, DevonThink, BBedit, etc. If they were encrypted that wouldn’t be possible.
I would like to be able to encrypt individual blocks, like in Roam, and have a feature request for this. But I actually think it is better not to encrypt the data locally.