Also we have to get rid of any messenger that requires your mobile phone number as your unique identifier, even much-lauded #Signal. It locks you inside the conventional, easy-to-track phone infrastructure. Try #Conversations instead, on a WiFi-only device. It uses the decentralized XMPP and works like a charm.
@ralph I totally agree with "we have to get rid of any messenger that requires your mobile phone number as your unique identifier." This has been annoying me for quite a while, now.
@kensanata @ralph @hinterwaeldler
It’s all about tradeoffs, right? Whether phone number leaking is a big deal largely depends on your threat model. Some people need to keep that number private. Others assume the attacker knows it already.
Network effects matter too. Many are already using Signal. More have heard of it.
“Is Signal ideal?” isn’t the question but rather “Is Signal better for my situation than what I use today?”
@mkb @kensanata @ralph @hinterwaeldler Signal has almost no advantages over WhatsApp or Threema. It is just marketed differently, to a different target group. Almost all modern messengers have some from of e2e-encryption, so Signal is not that special there, plus it is centralised, uses a strong selector as your identifier, key management is a nightmare and the main developer is not trustworthy. If you can, move away from Signal. Slowly, but steadily.
@resist_berlin @kensanata @ralph @hinterwaeldler TBH I’ve installed Wickr and Threema but don’t know anybody else using them so for all I know the UX is amazing on both.
@resist_berlin @kensanata @ralph @hinterwaeldler Yeah, I certainly don’t mean to suggest Signal is perfect. Like you said, using phone numbers is a problem for many threat models. All three chat apps are centralized which has disadvantages also.
IIRC, Threema’s protocol is secret so hasn’t been rigorously analyzed by the community. WhatsApp’s privacy policy explicitly gives them permission to share with FB which makes it a nonstarter for me. YMMV.