Enter the matrix: How to run an encrypted communications platform

Technology Pill

This week we're talking to Matthew Hodgson, one of the founders of Matrix - a network for secure, decentralised communication, and CEO/CTO of Element - a communications platform built using Matrix, about the regulatory environment matrix lives in, the difficulty of and the passion for interoperable communications at matrix, and the complications of building an encrypted communications platform both technically and in this day and age.

Links for description:

- Matrix: https://matrix.org/

- Element: https://element.io/

- Telegram's encryption: https://www.wired.com/story/telegram-encryption-end-to-end-features/

- Blah: https://www.vanillaplus.com/2014/05/22/2663-tim-brasil-deploys-amdocs-unified-communications-for-blah-service/

- Anatel Brazil Whatsapp arrest: https://www.reuters.com/article/technology/facebook-exec-jailed-in-brazil-as-court-seeks-whatsapp-data-idUSKCN0W34WA/

- eEuropean commission 42 point going dark plan: https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/first-insight-42-key-points-of-the-secret-eugoingdark-surveillance-plan-for-the-new-eu-commission

- Clipper chip: Listen to our podcast - https://privacyinternational.org/video/5332/cryptowars-short-history-encryption-politics

- Online Safety Act: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer

- Liberty on the Online Safety Act: https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Joint-civil-society-briefing-on-private-messaging-in-the-Online-Safety-Bill-for-Second-Reading-in-the-House-of-Lords-January-2023.pdf

- Adam Langley: https://www.imperialviolet.org/

- Pond.org: https://medium.com/@undercomm/secure-communication-pond-4985bfe85a2c

- 'We kill people based on metadata' https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/05/ex-nsa-chief-we-kill-people-based-on-metadata

- PI and ICRC report: https://privacyinternational.org/report/2509/humanitarian-metadata-problem-doing-no-harm-digital-era

- Matrix P2P tracker: https://arewep2pyet.com/

- Alec Muffett v Matthew Hodgson: https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/28/23000148/eu-dma-damage-whatsapp-encryption-privacy

- PI's take on the Digital Markets Act: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5356/what-digital-markets-act-and-what-does-it-mean-our-privacy-and-wider-rights

- Apple enable RCS: https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/10/24171315/apple-messages-rcs-ios-18-imessage-green-bubble

- Chat Control: https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/

- Cyber Resilience Act: https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/5060/our-position-eu-cyber-resilience-act-cra