Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Does Element log the IP address of app users? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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

Vague question. I will assume you log into and use the official Element web-client instance (https://element.io/). It is safe to say it logs IP Addresses for whatever amount of time similar to any other website on Earth that you connect to which is fundamentally obvious.

To mitigate this, as in to not make Element log your IP address, you have several options:

Use a non-web client (desktop, mobile). (Only your instance server can log your IP)
Use a a self hosted instance of the Element Web-Client. (The server self hosting it can log your IP)
Self host your own web client and use it. (Only your instance server can log your IP)
Use a different Web Client. (That server can also log your IP)

The rest depends on how the server you connect to, handles IP address logs. Some servers may retain it forever, some may remove it in a few days or weeks. Check up on your server's rules & regulations (incl. Privacy Policies) or contact your server administrator.

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

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

These Privacy Policies are likely only for their website element.io considering it mentions 'service'.

In the app itself you can disable 'Send analytics data' in 'Settings/Security & Privacy' and it sends no data whatsoever to the Devs.

I just surveilled the network traffic of my installed Element client and observed that it makes 0 connections to 'element.io' or 'matrix.org' or any other element-affiliated websites. The only connections made were to my instance server at a different service. So there is no possible way element can log my IP address.

If you're still skeptical of the Element Desktop App then you can alternatively:

Use a fork like SchildiChat which I personally use.
Fork the Element Client and modify the code to suit your needs.

Again, Element is open source, whether or not it makes requests to the element service to purposefully log your IP address even if you do not use the official service can be verified by just auditing the code. (Good Luck with that, or just find a previous audit report on the web)

If you're still skeptical and want to continue using the Element Desktop app. Just block element.io and eliminate any possibilities of the app phoning home.