i've just seen a comment in a post, in this very community, saying people trust signal because of missinformation (from what i could undertand).
if this is true, then i have a few questions:
-what menssaging app should i use for secure communications? i need an app that balances simplicity and security.
-how to explain it to my friends who use signal because i recomended?
-what this means for other apps in general?
-what menssaging app should i use for secure communications? i need an app that balances simplicity and security.
Define "secure communications".
Do you just not want to have all of your conversations to go into the pool of training data for LLMs? Signal is probably fine for that. You can also consider Matrix, although that has a LOT of caveats.
Do you want to commit crimes? Are they the "everyone does them" kind? Or are they the kind that can get you executed like "speaking out against the regime"? If the former? Signal is, again, probably fine. If the latter?
This is where you need to learn: The moment you rely on someone else to handle your privacy for you, you have none. What does that mean in this context? That means that if some company is exchanging keys for you then they inherently have those keys. And you can only trust them as far as they have been audited... and how recent that audit is.
So take a lesson from journalists. Exchange your keys ahead of time. This might be a proper public/private key pair or it could be as simple as a cipher (I suggest avoiding hotel bibles, but you do you). And then you communicate using that encryption/cipher. At which point it doesn't matter what you use (but maybe avoid google and facebook for obvious reasons...).
I guess i want privacy, not anonimity. i'm not like a activist, but i have opinions that would get me in trouble, nothing too crazy, just something like "x government did something bad"
It's always gonna be a moving target. Wife and I started using Telegram because it wasn't monitored like Facebook Messenger (which I don't have an account for) or WhatsApp. Now people are saying Telegram isn't good enough, use Signal. It's still good enough for us. I also have Signal. No one I know uses it, but I have it in case they wanna start using it.
Honestly though, iMessage is secure enough for most people. Basically texting through Apple servers.
But any security or privacy expert will tell you that you need to determine your own threat model. No one else can tell you what that is.
Telegram is a social network masquerading as a messaging app, not a "secure messaging" app.
Just because you made one mistake doesn't mean "It's always gonna be a moving target".
What's the one mistake? Telegram? Or Signal?
The way I see it, the goalposts keep moving because Telegram was the private alternative to FB Messenger and WhatsApp. Then Signal was the private alternative to those, and Telegram. Now people are saying Signal is a problem (I'm guessing because of the cock up the US government had last year?). The goalposts keep moving, but Telegram is still fine for what I need. I keep both as alternatives to texting for people who want to reach me however they're comfortable doing. I also have one called Session. I don't use Twitter/X, Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp, or Reddit. I have a Discord because I have a couple things that are only available up there, but it's not a good way to reach me as I have notifications disabled on it.
Telegram never was the private alternative to anything, unless you took their advertisement at face value. It was always known to not use e2ee by default.
Signal is not a problem, the US gov things were very dumb users issues. It was not caused by Signal itself.
So the goalpost has not moved in years, Signal was and is still good, Telegram is only fine if you do not care about privacy.
You, yes you, scrolling.
Here.
XMPP
I see you.
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.
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