Which tools do you think are missing in the ecosystem?

Questions
1

Which tools/apps/physical products you think should be there but nobody is working on it?

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Encrypted contacts that integrates with android and iOS. I have heard proton is doing it. The only other one is etesync but the iOS implementation is somewhat rough given the limitations of iOS. I really hope proton delivers something awesome.

Some type of phone number aliasing similar to what SimpleLogin does for email addresses but for phone numbers. The problem is phone numbering system doesn’t have domains that can generate basically unlimited phone numbers so I might not see a better system for that in my lifetime. MySudo exists but you can’t pay or get notifications of incoming calls without play services or Apples involvement. It’s also not available in every country.

Disposable payment cards like the ones provided at privacy.com but for many more countries. I’m guessing the main hurdle why they haven’t expanded already is the complexity of individual country and International finance laws.

Just some ideas off the top of my head.

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A bit niche but for what it’s worth… I use a home server with sftp as a basic but easy way to self-host “cloud” storage. I can’t use full disk encryption (e.g. LUKS) on the server as I need it to be able to boot unattended, so unless the data I upload is pre-encrypted it is vulnerable to things like someone breaking in and stealing the server. (Not a targeted attack, just stealing it along with my TV and other valuables.)

It would be nice if there was some way for the ssh/sftp server to use the ssh credentials to unencrypt the storage directory when I log in and discard those credentials on disconnection. This would obviously not be perfect, but it would at least protect that data against the physical theft case, as well as maybe some remote attacks. Maybe this exists, but last time I looked I couldn’t find anything. (I did wonder if it might be possible to kludge something up using PAM and ext4 encryption.)

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A little outside of the topic subject, but arch has good and various docs and I found one that fit your request Doc

5

Maybe check the CO2 levels in your room.

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I hope yipii is ok. lol

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Ok must not go to privacy when tired :sweat_smile:. Also my keyboard letter detection and corrector is shit :upside_down_face:. Need to find something better than openboard.

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Skiff might kinda have what you’re talking about? Contacts are encrypted and synced across devices. On Android anyways, you can now have Skiff keep your contacts synced to Skiff on your device, either having changes in the contacts app to update Skiff contacts, or vice versa where Skiff contacts updates device contacts. I believe this works on iOS as well.

The other ideas you mentioned though would be absolutely amazing. An easier way or masking phone numbers would be great, since so many services require phone number verification these days.

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This isn’t really privacy-related, but I want to input Japanese on GrapheneOS/Android. My options are to use keyboards that haven’t been updated for years on F-Droid or use Gboard. Or not input Japanese.

I choose not to input Japanese currently.

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On the positive side, non-destructive editing might be coming to GIMP very soon, which is a hell of a start.

I don’t do much vector work. What’s missing in Inkscape for your workflow?

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I’ll go with this here. There’s no free software keyboards on Android for some languages, which is really mind-boggling. I use the proprietary OyaMozc — INWORKS because I still trust that more than Gboard and it works on modern Android/GOS, but why am I forced to? Like I literally cannot communicate with my GOS Pixel without proprietary software, even though communication should be like the most obvious thing you might wanna do. I guess voice messages / phone calls still work regardless of language, but uh.

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The “proper/modern” way to do this is probably with a TPM, but this is still relatively new in Linux land.

https://ubuntu.com/blog/tpm-backed-full-disk-encryption-is-coming-to-ubuntu

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  1. Something like Etesync for encrypted calendar and contacts while still being compatible with standard applications. I mean, Etesync exists, but apparently is buggy and barely maintained.
  2. Good open source replacements for MS Office, Adobe, Autodesk etc. No, Libreoffice and Gimp are not good. They’re okay for simple tasks, but they’re not a real replacement for pros.
    Or alternatively: some kind of Linux Subsystem for Windows (like WSL but the other way round). There’s Winapps and Cassowary but they’re both buggy, non-trivial to set up, and seemingly abandoned.
  3. Alias system for phone numbers similar to what we have with emails (from Simplelogin to catch-all aliases to temporary inboxes). Right now the phone number is a quite unique identifier and so many websites require it.
  4. Widespread Monero acceptance and cheaper conversion to/from fiat. Also adding some real-life features to Monero wallets like standing orders/scheduled payments.
  5. Open source implementation of NFC payments like Apple/Google Pay
  6. End-to-end encrypted cloud storage that has all the convenience features of e.g. Dropbox or Onedrive, such as an API to integrate with apps or the ability to edit files in the browser.
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It makes sense what you mentioned, but those tasks are not easy or almost impossible to do. You can not get all the convenience with E2EE compared to regular unencrypted.
It is similar with professional tools - there’s a reason why such products cost hundreds or thousands of euros (even per year). The best thing you might get is commercial, proprietary but less privacy invasive alternative (which almost anything that is not Adobe, Autodesk and Microsoft)

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  1. The integration with the native contact app on iOS and Android is on the roadmaps of Tutanota and Proton.
  2. ONLYOFFICE can be a replacement for MSOffice (for me for instance).
  3. Maybe smspool.net is what you are looking for ?
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In my experience LibreOffice has been a great replacement for MSOffice, it can read and write to MS Office files very well as of version 7 and it has all the features one would expect PLUS support for extensions and whatnot (The .odt to .tex extension is very useful sometimes!)

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I have a relative who owns a small business and forces everyone there (including himself) to use LibreOffice, basically because he started using OpenOffice ever since it has existed and its the only thing he knows how to use (and its free). It continues to be a pain to read/edit MS Office documents, theyre always having trouble with it. I havent been successful in convincing him to move to OnlyOffice.

I suppose you might not come across many issues if you dont use many tables and graphs.

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I don’t think it’s completely impossible. For example, MEGA has an API (even WebDAV if you run your own “bridge” at home) and integrates well with third-party apps, but it doesn’t have a document editor. Sync.com has a document editor (MS Office Online to be exact) but it doesn’t have an API and no Linux app. Both are E2EE (though the MS Office thing requires temporary decrypting). ProtonDrive lacks the document editing and Linux app but has an (unofficial) API that is used by rclone.

As for the calendar: EteSync and (for emails) Protonmail Bridge show that it’s possible. E2EE data that’s synced online but locally decrypted and made accessible to any local app on desktop and mobile as well as in the (Javascript-enabled) browser.

Currently there are a bunch of isolated and sometimes buggy E2EE services that all lack some complementary features.

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