PSA: Voting on polls in Matrix chat **is not anonymous.** When you vote on a poll, your client sends a Matrix event specifying which event you chose. This event it tied to your account. Element by default does not display this info, but if you run `/devtools` and switch on developer mode, you can see the poll response events, who sent them, and what time they were sent. By inspecting the source code of the poll and the poll response events, it's fairly easy to see who voted what, and when. (Element even has a built-in tool for viewing this source code.)
For most polls this probably isn't a problem, but if you need a poll to be anonymous, use something else.
(This isn't meant to be a dig at Matrix or Element, I use Matrix for chat daily and will continue to do so. Just be aware of the limitations of the software you use.)
#matrix #element #polls #security #privacy #anonymity #chat #linux
Aaron Rainbolt /
npub176…p9h5z
2024-07-09 02:02:04
Author Public Key
npub176a0y2lwjfwg3ykpnp82glt7dzy69vl6pzxcnn08zfu4g6n2h8rs8p9h5zSeen on
wss://relay.noswhere.comPublished at
2024-07-09 02:02:04Event JSON
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"content": "PSA: Voting on polls in Matrix chat **is not anonymous.** When you vote on a poll, your client sends a Matrix event specifying which event you chose. This event it tied to your account. Element by default does not display this info, but if you run `/devtools` and switch on developer mode, you can see the poll response events, who sent them, and what time they were sent. By inspecting the source code of the poll and the poll response events, it's fairly easy to see who voted what, and when. (Element even has a built-in tool for viewing this source code.)\n\nFor most polls this probably isn't a problem, but if you need a poll to be anonymous, use something else.\n\n(This isn't meant to be a dig at Matrix or Element, I use Matrix for chat daily and will continue to do so. Just be aware of the limitations of the software you use.)\n\n#matrix #element #polls #security #privacy #anonymity #chat #linux",
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