Aaron Rainbolt on Nostr: PSA: Voting on polls in Matrix chat **is not anonymous.** When you vote on a poll, ...

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