Please, remove the green dot (status). It’s privacy issue.
I disabled "Read Receipts’ but I still see green dots next to the profile.
I absolutely agree with the user privacy issue behind your philosophy, but the developers disagree based on technical grounds. In their opinion, if it can be determined based on last reception date, it must also be revealed to everybody.
it must also be revealed to everybody.
to be clear, as “everybody” can easily be misunderstood:
the green dot is shown only for the concrete receivers of a message. this is not “everybody”.
the receiver will have the same information anyway, there is no message or any data sent especially for the green dot. so, indeed, in general, this is not regarded as a as a privacy or security issue
I disabled "Read Receipts’ but I still see green dots next to the profile.
this is because you received a message from that person in the last 10 minutes.
if the person does not interact with you in the last 10 minutes, you will not see the green dot - even if that person is online and is using delta chat with other contacts.
One word: stalkers.
but a stalker would anyway see that you sent them a message. or use other things to track you. the green dot is the smallest problem you will have then.
in contrast to other messengers, stalkers do not see that you are online without interacting with them. and there is no public discovery of ppl at all.
in general, eg. if you want to get in contact with a stranger you are not sure about, it is a good idea to create a separate profile for that. i heard that some ppl recommend Delta Chat for dating at the first place because of that. if it does not work out, just remove the profile alltogether.
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We had this conversation quite a few times already, so let’s just agree to disagree at this point. Real people don’t work in ways you’d imagine them to from the lab.
Hey, let me just ask you a quick favor as I see you are available now
Hey, why did you not reply to my message from 42 minutes ago, I see you were already online since then???!!!
[people could share a bunch of common groups and webxdc other than private messages and while technically could, most won’t bother to go through each of them to check your most recent read receipt, while this indicator is glowing in their face in the private chat where they are expecting your immediate attention]
It’s perfectly sensible for a DC developer to decline a given request and even share a reasoning for it if they want and I can accept that.
However, it’s not okay to gaslight one who raises a valid concern by waving it away and demeaning their problems.
yeah, let’s agree to disagree ![]()
Real people don’t work in ways you’d imagine them to from the lab.
ftr, it is not that we’re planning things out of the “lab”. we’re doing a lot of user testing, with ppl on the street, with ppl at risk. figuring out real-life threats and so on. we exactly try not to do theoretical things for theoretical threats. at the same time trying to offer what ppl expect from an easy-to-use messenger. this is not always easy, and we can obviously not always make all sides happy. still, we’re listening a lot, also here in the forum.
So, if we asked here more concretely or in another topic to introduce an option that would ask other clients via a header to hide the presence of this user, would you consider it?
@Ian the green dot only indicates an information that is already there. As soon as you receive a message from someone, be it a normal message, read confirmation, reaction, webxdc status, this point appears for 10 min. It’s not an online presence like in other messengers.
You can see all these messages anyway and you should see them, otherwise it would make no sense. What does this have to do with stalking?
The mere fact that these can be easily observed by a determined actor at the protocol level is one thing.
Most (but not all) stalkers are less technically literate or determined. As per the above example cites, not all people possibly misusing such a green dot are legally deemed “stalkers” (you could also call them annoying people).
Many people have already reached out to us on various platforms about this feature in DC in particular, so I would not say I’m making this up: real people in real situations are concerned even after we copy & paste the same explanation (the technically correct one - the best kind of correct there is).
Then it’s best to disable read receipts, just like you can with other messengers. But if you send them a message, react to one, or use an app in a shared chat, why shouldn’t they see it?
I’ve never had such problems since the green dot was introduced years ago.