Hello, I was asked to write a report about my first impressions with SelfPrivacy. Here it is.
About me: I am an experienced user, with a good background in sysadmin
and selfhosting. My goal was to experiment and to check if it would be
suitable for non-technical users. I tried the mobile app, and even I
don’t really like mobile apps personally, but I think it’s a good idea
for the target audience. It’s nice and relatively clear overall.
Regarding the deployment of a server, here are my comments:
- The Getting Started page is essential. It would benefit from a bit
more explanation directly in the app. - I’m relatively disappointed by the limited choices for hosting, but I
imagine it’s not an issue for beginners. - Creating accounts with the various providers is quite tedious; it
would be good to integrate all of that into the app (which implies
having an API for creating accounts, that’s tricky, I guess). There’s
also a need to understand the concept of tokens. If we only look at
the mobile app, we can really feel lost. - It’s inconvenient to have to enter the tokens in order.
- Why differentiate between DNS and registrar? Most registrars provide
DNS; it would be simpler, right? - The mention of DNS propagation time is very discreet in the Getting
Started section and absent in the app. - In case of an error (I had messed up my DNS configuration), we don’t
know what happens, only that it has failed and that a new attempt will
be made. We don’t know what needs to be corrected, and we can’t
explain anything to someone who is helping us.
Regarding the server administration:
- It’s really pretty and pleasant to use.
- It’s impossible to change the tokens without resetting everything.
- Thank you for integrating backups; it’s fundamental, yet it is often
lacking. - DNS records are missing for Thunderbird to successfully auto-detect
from the email address. - The DNS is populated even for services that are not activated (there
must be a missing IF in the NixOS scripts). - The DNS screen doesn’t serve much purpose.
- The Prometheus service is very mysterious; we don’t know what it’s for
(I imagine it’s for the metrics on the app’s homepage?). - Strange choice of VPN: why OpenConnect? Especially since we can’t
configure it. It has a subdomain, but it directs to the default nginx
page. - There should be a “What do I need to backup” screen that lists
everything that needs to be written outside of the smartphone to
restore the server or regain access.
Other comments:
- For DNS management and to have access to more providers, there is the
library GitHub - StackExchange/dnscontrol: Infrastructure as code for DNS! used by the
excellent HappyDomain interface happyDomain. Finally a simple interface for domain names.. - Email will not work out of the box, it should be emphasized somewhere.
- The mobile app is limited to a single server, which may be a problem.
One could easily imagine a scenario with a personal server and a
server for an association. Another scenario could be a personal server
and a server for demos or experiments. - I suggest to use encryption on the storage, with a static key in the
configuration (with the following threath model: hard drive discarded
and throwed in the bin) - As an experienced user, I’m certainly not going to use SelfPrivacy for
myself; I’m not the target. However, it’s definitely something I would
recommend and help manage. In this regard, there are two things I feel
are lacking: first, I would like to be able to recommend my preferred
providers, the ones I know and for which I can provide technical
support, so the limited choice of providers is restrictive for me;
second, to help my friends and family, it would be nice to be able to
manage multiple SelfPrivacy servers from the app (well, it’s trivial
to do manually on desktop, but more challenging on mobile).
Thank you very much! This is probably the first time I’ve been convinced
by a project of this type. It works, it’s nice, and it’s pleasant to
use.