this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2021
22 points (100.0% liked)
Privacy
33192 readers
599 users here now
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.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
My rundown
If you want anonymity:
1- element, with a self hosted server , or just on any open instance. There is a lot of metadata storage involved. If you want to run it through tor. mind the IP leakage as it uses WebRTC for voice and video calls
2-Wire: You need to trust the company behind it as server code is closed source, but in terms of usability, It is unbeatable IMO, they store more metadata on you compared to Signal
4- XMPP: you can self host an xmpp server if you have the know how. I have used it but was disappointed, most apps and software handle encryption very poorly. and both you and your interlocutor need to have accounts on servers running the same protocol add-ons. quite a messy situation.
3- Jami: P2P secure private communication, has some connectivity problems. but worth a try with people curious enough to join you in
4- Briar: basic chat app with strong encryption. could be used in a mesh network, suitable for situation like protests and big gatherings.
4- Threema : never used it, to use it you need to pay a subscription fee
6- wikr : they say its good
5- Session: still in its infancy. no video or phone calls yet. it was audited back in the time when it relied on onion routing, now they have switched to LokiNet. that audit is no more valid. + they rolled back on Perfect Forward secrecy.
Phone number registration:
1- Signal: Best in class in terms of conversation encryption. with a lot of features. I might be biased but I don't trust the team, especially with the latest server situation.
holy sh* thank you, I have to keep eyes on session in the future then, I think it might just be the one best chat app later.
I was considering using both xmpp/Matrix, based on what you said, maybe I shouldn't use xmpp after all. I'll use matrix without using vc then.
Which matrix server do you recommend?
edit; same, I'm kind of sceptical of signal since a while before, I can't trust things that need my personal info. It's centralized and needs your phone number. maybe It's just because It's a WhatsApp alternative. still, it could be better if it was decentralized platform. also the desktop app is not that great.
Matrix is the most promising project in my opinion even though privacy was at the beginning an afterthought. we need as a community to keep pressure on the devs to minimize metadata collection.
For a trial you can sign up to the matrix.org server. just keep in mind to switch to another one once you decide to make matrix your daily driver.
Because matrix.org is the biggest instance, it is subject to a lot of attacks, it has been breached once back when E2EE wasn't active by default.
I've had a matrix account there before, I'm asking if there's an instance I could join because I'm aware that using matrix.org would probably not be the best idea since the whole point of it is to be decentralized, and metadata and identity is collected there.
I found this instance though https://chat.tchncs.de/
for now I'll use that instead, maybe I'll run a matrix server in the future for people to use.