General > General Technical Chat

Delete WhatsApp, use Signal Private Messenger instead

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steve30:
I think I'll just stick to IRC.

Halcyon:

--- Quote from: steve30 on January 12, 2021, 07:45:39 am ---I think I'll just stick to IRC.

--- End quote ---

I think we can safely exclude you from this conversation Steve, you still use a rotary phone ;-)

Zucca:
I prefer Telegram (has the live location sharing function) but Signal is okay too.
Regarding security you should never use an app messanger platform for sensible stuff.
We should all delete Whatsapp and stick with the others, I do not like when things get too popular.
A good crazy strategy could be to use two platforms in the same conversation, crazy.... but more secure.

SVFeingold:
These are all nice thoughts. In reality the overwhelmingly vast majority of people don't care to this extent, and certainly aren't going to spend time debating the finer points of precisely which encrypted messenger service is technically superior based on the peer-review of their open-source code on Github, or which government agencies say what about them.

This is vaguely reminiscent of the Linux fanboys being certain it's the "year of Linux" and they're finally gonna take down MS and Apple. Then as soon as they say "BUT IT'S SO EASY, all you need to do is open a command-line and apt-get..." they lose 99.9% of the public. As they've done the last 20+ years. And will continue to do for the next 20.

The truth is people care to the extent it's easy to obtain and use them. The less investment required the better. Signal does well in this regard (especially with the recent endorsement from Elon). Facebook messenger is probably fine for most people. If you are transmitting truly sensitive data, as in actual state secrets, actually classified documents, etc. then you've probably already been briefed on exactly which services are acceptable and how much jailtime you'll get if you use any others.

No state actor cares about your cat pics. Or your nudes. Or how wasted Michelle got last weekend. It's like that XKCD. Nobody is gonna build a supercomputer to crack the 4096-bit encryption to your bank account. They're just going to hit you with a wrench until you tell them the password.

Which isn't to say nobody should care. They should. But all you folks sending a deluge of requests to your friends to "use this totally secure, totally obscure open source messenger, and it's so easy! Here's a step-by-step on how to sideload the APK onto your phone" are probably just going to end up with fewer friends. If there's an existing, widely used, widely supported messenger that it perfectly fine for everything but transmitting classified info or nuclear launch codes, it's probably good enough. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. It may be a fun hobby for you, it's not for the majority of people who actually need to use it in order to start making a majority of our comms secure.

andy3055:
Well, Telegram is in the news now!

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