Welcome! This is a community for all those who are interested in protecting their privacy.
PS: Don't be a smartass and try to game the system, we'll know if you're breaking the rules when we see it!
Why? Because the Dutch national broadcasters keep plugging it as an alternative to Whatsapp.
Aside... Two apps keep getting mentioned as alternatives, Signal and Element/Matrix, but in MHRO both are not viable as replacements.
Signal: still a US app, CIA funded, provides their encryption backbone to Whatsapp, recommended by governments & FBI. Matrix/Element: Developed in Israel, with ties to IDF, preferred by NATO (NI2CE)
I guess this means we're not switching to RCS then?
RCS is not an open standard
A lot of VPN servers in Netherlands may have something to do with it.....
I would have rather seen Element but hey, it's a step in the right direction.
Why? Matrix sucks as an instant messenger app, it's better as a Slack/Discord alternative.
It only sucks because you keep using Element. Its the worst client out there, if you account for "doneness"
And what would be the best? Element is certainly the most popular.
Only because I'm not aware of other decentralised Signal alternatives. That's on me.
XMPP
SimpleX is pretty rad.
Indeed, but funded by VC which makes me uneasy about its future.
Huh, I missed that. From the announcement:
Also, funding the work to transition the protocols to non-profit governance model would not have been possible without the donations we received from the users.
Our pledge to our users is that SimpleX protocols are and will remain open, and in public domain, so anybody can build the future implementations of the clients and the servers. We are building SimpleX platform based on the same principles as email and web, but much more private and secure.
If they stay true to that, they're probably planning on building for-profit apps on top, while keeping the foundation free.
That sounds reasonable to me. Hopefully that happens.
Fair. I'll still be on watch, since venture capitalists are scum. Hopefully donations will eventually become stable enough for a revenue stream for them.
Isn't Element based of Matrix? From what I've read, Matrix is a bit mid (not exactly mid, but I can't think of any other word).
It works as it's supposed to, though the handling of keys (strictly necessary for self-determined end-to-end encrypted chats) can be hard and annoying for people who have no experience. But once you get the hang of device confirmation you can use it seamlessly across multiple devices.
Fluffy Chat is great too!
My dad just said in the WhatsApp group, why not move to signal. I tried moving friends and family before, but now that there has been anti meta media reports in some news sources. But especially reports on signal in almost every major newspaper and news source.
It seems not only a push because of privacy, but even more a anti big tech(especially us tech) and buy/use eu stuff push.
I don't mind the push I'm just curious if people stay on signal. Previous time there was a push to signal (during whatsapp technical difficulties and privacy push) people quickly want back to whatsapp.
Now my volunteer work, 1 friend and a family chat already moved to signal. The only thing I did was some explaining that you can just send images and so on. (That it's not something scary)
I use Telegram, like betamax have I backed the wrong horse?
All kidding aside from the other comments, Telegram is not secure or private. It's not E2EE by default and getting it enabled is per-chat and convoluted. Frankly, I wouldn't even trust it with cat pics I send to the bros let alone private messages... not to be fear mongering but do yourself a favor and get off Telegram.
Signal, despite some criticism that it's "Not private enough etc.", strikes a balance between usability, privacy and security. It's also miles better than Telegram on all fronts.
A big issue we have in the privacy community is that it's easy to have an "all or nothing mindset". Even small steps in the right direction can be hugely beneficial. So, Signal is great. Use Signal.
I'm sure going all in on a Russian company is just fine. Their Wikipedia entry has nothing at all to indicate any shady behavior.
/s
Oops, I didn't realise. I'd not fully adopted so will pivot. Ta
Nah we good bro (I have zero objective data to back this up but I want to think it's true because I'd be too lazy to move)
All kidding aside from the other comments, Telegram is not secure or private. It’s not E2EE by default and getting it enabled is per-chat and convoluted. Frankly, I wouldn’t even trust it with cat pics I send to the bros let alone private messages… not to be fear mongering but do yourself a favor and get off Telegram.
Signal, despite some criticism that it’s “Not private enough etc.”, strikes a balance between usability, privacy and security. It’s also miles better than Telegram on all fronts.
A big issue we have in the privacy community is that it’s easy to have an “all or nothing mindset”. Even small steps in the right direction can be hugely beneficial. So, Signal is great. Use Signal.
Thanks for the detailed reply, will do as only a couple of mates have adopted it anyway and they're double bagging with WhatsApp anyway
Good luck!
I found that once I plainly and simply explained it to those I want to stay in touch with and stated that this will be the easiest/fastest/only way to reach me, a lot of my connections actually adopted Signal. Once they realized that it's just "whatsapp but more private and secure" more of their connections started to adopt it etc.
I did notice that for most of my friends they convince themselves that they can't leave other platforms without loosing their connections, and end up keeping their accounts there in addition to Signal - but I'm living proof that it's not that hard.
I'm a big proponent of "protocols not platforms" and the above is a great example of why this is the future we need to strive for. FOSS protocols that are immutable, secure and private (as needed).
Hypothetical: If, for example, Signal and Whatsapp were built on the same protocol - you could move to Signal without loosing your contacts/not being reachable etc. Whatsapp would also likely be less shitty because it would've been built on a strong protocol too.
It makes alot of sense.
I'm actively trying to limit my reliance on US technology, and while I appreciate Signal is a US organisation I'm going to have to make compromises and adopt a "least bad" mentality
Nah ur (not) that good bro
Let's hope they'll be able to continue to use it. It (and all other messengers with proper E2EE) is already on track to be outlawed in Sweden and France, and the new government in Germany will be pro mass-surveillance, too.