Hello, I’m doing some research for my family and friends to help them navigate the tech space and recommend them some better privacy focused alternatives. I’ve been stuck with the most important piece: instant messaging.
Ideally I would like something:
- decentralised
- Foss
- Possibly not tied to phone number
- Encrypted
- Not funded by an US or Israeli company
- Fairly easy to use by not tech people
If I manage to convince them, I can’t make them change in a year or so, the alternative needs to be future-proof.
- Signal: is Foss (not completely) but not decentralised (one “wrong” update and we are back to square one) + very much american funded
- Matrix: foss and decentralised but funded by an Israeli company (sorry I really can’t)
- Telegram: phone number registration, not fully encrypted, server proprietary
- Theema: server side not open source
- IRC: no video/audio calls, not encrypted
That leaves me with SimpleX and XMPP, I think (I don’t know much about them). What do you guys use/recommend?
I’m reading [this wiki page].(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instant_messaging_protocols?wprov=sfti1#Table_of_instant_messaging_protocols)
Simply use Matrix or Signal. Matrix is fully open source, why do you care who funds it? Open source belongs to everyone.
OS doesn’t belong to everyone. It usually comes with a license which states who and how it can be used. And I agree with OP, I wouldn’t touch it if it is Israel founded.
We can a) pretend I meant it in the literal sense of ownership b) take it as I meant it, meaning it’s yours because you can use it, modify it and the company creating it can’t take it away from you.
You can use it and modify it as long as license permits it. Owner could theoretically enforce the license.
Which you can with open source, that’s kinda its whole shtick. If you can’t, it’s not open source, but source available.
I really don’t trust anything Israel makes at this point. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if the protocol has somehow a backdoor and I’m not that expert I can check myself.
Such a reach you’re almost in space.
Well, the original protocol is from the US, then switched to a UK company, then to some non-profit. It never was developed by Israel.
And yeah, military country like Israel investing money into something their military can use for secret communication - what a surprise.
I get it, you’re not a fan of Israel, but this is ridiculous.
From wikipedia:
I’m okay ignoring it, I honestly don’t give a fuck about their protocol, it’s not my company. There are plenty of alternatives.
You might think it’s ridiculous but the country is committing genocide, sorry if I want to sleep at night and have a bit of morals. Jeez…
No, not liking Israel is not the ridiculous thing, but you coming to the conclusion that because they invest money into a protocol, it’s bad.
Matrix (the organisation) doesn’t create the most popular server implementation, nor the most popular client.
And that’s where your hate of Israel gets ridiculous, because they happen to want an encrypted communication software (again, what a surprise for a military country), you lock yourself out of a perfectly fine solution that Israel doesn’t even touch directly at all.
Let’s put it this way, I do believe that matrix accepting money from israel is morally disgusting and I won’t use them. It could be the best system in the world, I am not using it. I’m not asking anyone to convince me, I am already convinced, can we move on now?
Oh, this discussion wasn’t for you, it was for others who might falsely assume your claims to be facts and would lock themselves out of a reasonably secure federated system.