this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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Privacy

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glitr.io

im working on a p2p file transfer app. at the moment its a close-source webapp, but i hope to work towards some selfhosted options as seen on my other projects.

the storage is local-only from your browser/device. so like "the cloud", but the cloud storage capacity is made up of your devices.

ive recently updated the landing page and i hope ive got it as simple as possible to transfer a file from one device to another.

im looking for feedback on the experience.

(Note 1: its still a work in progress. if there is an issue, you can usually refresh the browser and try again)

(Note 2: it seems important to mention: this app is not libre software. This needs more consideration to see if I can align to this. For information and open-source examples of the code in action, take a look at the docs and github for decentralized chat)

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That sounds cool πŸ‘ If you do decide to make it FOSS I'd be happy to try it out and give feedback.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thanks!

Perhaps you'd like to give feedback on a separate but similar foss project: https://github.com/positive-intentions/chat

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

That looks cool - thanks for the link :)

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago

this app is not libre software.

useless

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Foss or gtfo. Im not letting a black box see my files. I dont care what you claim, I have been burned before.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

There ain't no trust in this game. If it isn't open source then it's pretty much dead in the water. You can't compete with OSS with closed code in this space, really. There's a few alternatives (and ones that are more mature and proven) that will always be first choices.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Absolutely. Also, it probably is in your best interest to advertise details of your cryptography. What data is shared with whom, what algorithms are used, etc.; if you're doing something more exotic / low-level, Alice-Bob diagrams can be helpful. I'm not sure what other people do but when looking at security-sensitive software, the first thing I do is look for the cryptographic setup and research it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'm in the process of rebranding and moving domains, so the documentation links are broken. You can try the search. it seems to work reasonably well. A good place to start could be from here:

https://positive-intentions.com/docs/research/authentication#authentication-sequence

Feel free to reach out for clarity on anything.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So it's like croc, but closed source?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have a weird setup with open and closed source.

I have open source examples of this code in action. If interested: https://github.com/positive-intentions/chat

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I understand you want to make money from this, but for privately sending files, the much more mature and free open source projects will be greatly preferred. So I dont see this app going anywhere. Closed source doesn't lend itself to privacy all that well. Gl.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (10 children)

strong title

  • not open source
  • similar to other free software but might have some difference (webrtc?)
  • what is the market for that target user (doesnt seem include lemmy audience) who needs that difference
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Cool project, but it seems to be very similar to PairDrop with the major downside of not being open-source. What would be the advantages of using this project over existing FOSS-solutions?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If it's not open source then forget about it, it won't go anywhere. I've had that stance of all software for decades now, but in the last few years boat loads of others have caught on.

Its simple really. If the software is open source (ALL of it, servers, clients) we can all check it and all be sure it does what is advertised. If not, we have no way of knowing what you're doing, especially on the server side of things, and if we've finally collectively learned on thing, it's that we can't trust companies on the server side of things. Data WILL be used in other ways than advertised.

Since this software is supposed to be a security product, trust is paramount, and it's bot there at all. Unless this product would be open source I won't even look at it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thanks for the empassioned speech/statement!

Perhaps you'd be interested in one of my open source projects. It's a beefier version of the app presented in the parent post.

https://github.com/positive-intentions/chat

On the point about open source, it isn't easy to pull off. I can confirm it isn't the case that open-source be flooded with some kind of collective community review/support. It's been an option for the chat app for a while and I've tried actively promoting it, it's clear that the project is simply too complicated.

I'm a bit disappointed in how hard I tried on the open source project for it to not get the traction I wanted. To create somthing close-source and competitive in the file-transfer space is only logical at this point.

I'm sure with an enthusiastic speech like that, you're doing your part for supporting the open source community. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to get it to filter down to me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did you just send me a chatgpt reply?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

No. When I type with "correct capitals", it's because I'm doing it from my phone. I otherwise generally might sound like chatgpt.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How is this different than FTP?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

This is using the WebRTC protocol. As a webapp it's immediately good to go, there isn't a need to run something like a FTP server.

Of course limitations apply like sending larger files nukes my ram... But I after it's sent, it seems to settle down.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Closed source and a crowded market.

Sorry to say, but I don't think you understand the audience for this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If interested in how it works and to see code examples, this project is based on my beefier open-source code seen here: https://github.com/positive-intentions/chat

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I use magic wormhole for these sorts of things. There are many FOSS clients and the protocol is open. Here's my android client of choice and my Linux client of choice. There are also many options of other GUI and command line implementations.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

By the way this is a maintaned fork of your Android Client: https://github.com/iyox-studios/iyox-Wormhole

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Thanks. I hope to get to a point where I can make the experience as seamless as workhole.

To compare solutions, a key details around providing my app as a webapp, is to avoid the requirement of a client. this opens up the set of compatible platforms.

(Note: it's a common request for me, so by popular demand, i will aim to provide binaries for the major platforms.)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

From Switzerland, Sharrr, OpenSource, encrypted EE2E, no knowledge, 10GB/file, one time download. From the same author, https://scrt.link/, for share autodestructive encrypted notes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nice! Can you tell me more about zero-knowledge encryption?

In my app I'm using asymmetric encryption to exchange a symmetric encryption key (Diffie-helman). I'm curious about other approaches for P2P authentication.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

it means exactly this, the server hasn't any knowledge about your uploaded files or encrytion key. It's very save, but not really P2P, because of an server in the middle where the files are stored until download. Real P2P is eg, Croc, which transfer files direct from one PC to the other, without any server in the middle, you send an link which pointed direct to the files in your PC. The advantage is that you have anytime full control over the files and with this no limits on filesizes, but maybe a drawback is, that downloads are only possible, when your PC is online, on the other hand, this permits also to interrupt downloads, simply going offline, (it's FOSS)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I need this. But ffsend + encrypted zip file works most of the time. Or onionshare.

Not sure I see how this helps.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

For me, it's an achievement for it to be comparable to those tools. I aim to get to a similar feature set and make the user experience intuitive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is really cool. What kind of cryptography are you using?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I'm of the opinion that you should probably provide Source Code on a "Source Available" basis to people who ask and have a need to see it to audit or self-compile. The lack of "Open-ness" in your code is disturbing.

I won't comment or judge on your decision to refuse to offer this software on a Libre basis. You absolutely have the right to monetize as necessary; especially if this code is speaking to a backend infrastructure that you maintain for it. Even if all you do is aim to break even and pay for those servers.

The experience is extremely unintuitive. I couldn't get your app to work at all on my privacy enforcing browser within the confines of my privacy enforcing LAN. (Yes; I do/did enable WebRTC and the other required technologies, however they're enabled in a privacy respecting manner.) Neither of my devices would show or remain connected once added. There were no popups or information given to me by the app to troubleshoot the issue; and I'm not going to crank open a Dev Console for something that I can't contribute to anyways. If your software is going to remain closed in source; "It should just workβ„’".

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Very cool this is similar to dibbles. How is it different?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I haven't heard of Dibbles. Can you point me to their site?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm sorry I lied. I made it up. I just wanted to fit in with everyone else shitting on the person creating stuff.

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