Privacy

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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.

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The Best Encrypted Messengers in 2024 (blog.thenewoil.org)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

128 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I am a firm believer that there are many privacy techniques you should focus on before encrypted messaging because they will offer you much more “bang for your buck,” things like good passwords, two-factor authentication, and even encrypted email. That said, I still believe that encrypted messaging is a critical part of a well-rounded privacy and security strategy. While the vast majority of our day-to-day conversations may be benign, it can still offer a lot of insight into who we are as people – our routines, likes, and personal thoughts. This information – mundane or not – is worth protecting.

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[–] [email protected] 115 points 3 months ago (4 children)

TLDR: Avoid Telegram and WhatsApp. Recommended messengers are Session, Signal, SimpleX and Threema. Honorable mention: Briar.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Session should probably be avoided as well, primarily because they've disabled things like perfect forward secrecy and a few other security measures that probably should not have been disabled.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Session is dead lmfao

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

Oh damn. When I first looked into Session I was really excited, until I found out that the anonymity layer was based on an altcoin. Which means that you're only anonymous as long as line goes up. I didn't expect it to fail quite this quickly though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Oh damn

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

TLDR???? pls

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

The Session open group server sog.caliban.org has been permanently shut down due to the declining state and neglect of the open group ecosystem by its creators.
The transition from the private cryptocurrency OXEN to the public ERC-20 token SENT is criticized for favoring the project's creators over loyal community members, leading to potential financial losses for many.
The author condemns the management of Session for their incompetence and dishonesty, predicting the project's inevitable failure due to a lack of trust and proper execution.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

That's mentioned in the article I believe. I was just trying to save some people a minute or two. :)

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago

Honorable mention to Matrix as well

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

OK, WhatsApp is owned by Meta and it is proprietary, but why not Telegram?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Effectively does not have end-to-end, phone number required and overall hard to use anonymously, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Doesn't Signal also require a phone number?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Not anymore if I understand everything correctly

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It does (and you still can't make multiple accounts per number either), it just doesn't have to be public.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Yes, and that's a mark against Signal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Simplex should be the only one around with Briar and Threema being sidekicks