Is using an Matrix account from matrix.org private and secure enough to talk with my family members and people in general?

[toastal@lemmy.ml]

It takes 2 to tango. It’s like trying to send an email from a self-hosted email server without following all of Google’s rules/guidelines… which means you won’t be able to send a message to most (sadly). Most folks are either on Matrix.org or a server they host in practice… you alone self-hosting will only help if you only communicate to folks also doing similar… to which if just one user from Matrix.org (or a server they host) joins your chatroom, then literally everything that is being & has been said in that room will now be synced to Matrix.org by its protocol design. With the expense it takes to self-host Matrix for a community, almost all medium-sized communities had to drop it on RAM & storage costs alone which caused most of those users to move to Matrix.org. You can run a single-user host with some efficiency, but most users are not technical enough for this. The only option to use Matrix & keep costs down is to unfederate… at least with Matrix.org (& servers they host), but that now defeats a huge part of the argument those saying Matrix is federated/decentralized.

The accessibility to small–medium-sized communities matters if you want a healthy federated/decentralized network …but luckily there are alternatives.

[index@sh.itjust.works]

It takes 2 to tango. It’s like trying to send an email from a self-hosted email server without following all of Google’s rules/guidelines…

Don't say bullshit, a chat is not mails, matrix federation works similarly to lemmy

[engineergaming@feddit.nl]

Yeah, I agree it has some issues. Personally was fine verifying keys tho - either in-person or wherever I met them (usually IRC).

And yeah, the insistence on mobile in Signal bugs me a lot - a desktop is A LOT easier to make private (Linux runs on damn everything) while most phones won't allow making them not spy due to locked bootloader.

[toastal@lemmy.ml]

DeltaChat literally turns email into something more akin to chat mostly by just changing the UX. Matrix is less like chat tho & more like editing a document & syncing changes with someone but this is besides the point…

Lemmy would have the exact same issue if 90% of users were on Lemmy.ml or servers they hosted, but it is fairly distributed & not as heavy to run (nor does it have some startup mentality behind it trying to ‘disrupt’ chat by inventing new words like “bridges” instead of “gateways” & so on to put off casual users from the scent that chat has a well-worn path development for decentralization since the ’80s)

[toastal@lemmy.ml]

I am just thankful so far that Signal has let WhisperFish exist as an alternative—even if it goes against what they say—which gives me an alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly.

[emberleaf@lemmy.ml]

Can you please provide any data where Signal has been compromised? I'm not saying that the possibility doesn't exist, but I've certainly never seen one single instance where Signal was compromised, so please do share.

[bigfab@lemmy.world]

What are the biggest threats in telegram? Corporations, widespread scams or individual ppl closer to me?

[kekmacska@lemmy.zip]

telegram has a lot of illegal stuff on it. Plus the ceo has been caught and this way, the whole thing was compromised

[somegeek@programming.dev]

The open source client doesn't mean jack shit dude.
Telegram also has open source client.
Your data lives on their servers not clients and also, even if the server code is open source, there are many ways for a backdoor and violations of privacy in the infrastructure. When you give up your phone number, there is no privacy.

[index@sh.itjust.works]

Go ahead and send me your phone number. If you don't want to do it please provide data that i'm compromised.

[bigfab@lemmy.world]

Okey, but I mean what are the threats to my privacy if I use telegram?

[kekmacska@lemmy.zip]

your data can land at french police, who caught Pavel Durov. i only use telegram to track custom rom updates, for that it is fine. but don't use it for private conversations

[activist@lemm.ee]

why did they told you not to use signal

[bigfab@lemmy.world]

That is a shame, but still not a big surprise. In comparison Apple has been sharing all kind of iPhone push notifications with the US government. I guess no other app will save your privacy from gvt.
iPhone notifications to US gvt.