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)
you’re spreading lies lies lies FUD
IDGAF who funds it or who develops it.
Those three things are all that matters.
Just FYI:
If you want to say "both are not", you can instead use "neither".
Yes you can, both are correct.
Neither is incorrect really
you are neither correct nor right.
Signal: still a US app, CIA funded
Honestly, this gives me more confidence in it. The CIA is very interested in keeping its people safe, so if they're using it, its in their interest to ensure it's secure. If they do put in a backdoor, I happen to be a US citizen so I'm unlikely to be a target since the CIA is all about surveillance on outsiders (FBI is domestic). FBI and Signal rarely agree, but they agree that Signal is great, so I think that's a pretty strong endorsement.
Add to that Edward Snowden recommends it, and he's certainly an enemy of both the CIA and the FBI at this point.
If nobody used CIA funded security tools, we wouldn't have security tools
Signal is funded by the CIA now ? And I thought Element is in the UK?
Signal does seem to have some ties to the CIA
There seems to be a completely different Israeli company called matrix. I can't find any link between the two.
It's old and convoluted, something like a precursor to element got funding from Israel or something
A lot of VPN servers in Netherlands may have something to do with it.....
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.
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 guess this means we're not switching to RCS then?
RCS is not an open standard
Not to mention only available on certain phone brands and certain carriers (where I am, only one of major four).
Nope.
If I can implement my own RCS client, then I'll consider 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.
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.
It only sucks because you keep using Element. Its the worst client out there, if you account for "doneness"
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).