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Alternative to Signal and TG ?

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Yes I⁤ agree, it's weird. I think it's because developers are focusing more on mobile applications as⁣ almost everyone is doing everything from their phone these days, shopping, paying bills, social media,⁢ even doctor appointments.

There are things like XMPP with OMEMO which is actually very secure︀ and works across all platforms. However it can be a bit tricky for normies to︁ get it setup. Apps like Signal is far easier and a plug and play solution.︂ The majority of people are lazy, they just want it to work without doing anything.︃

But yeah a old school style messenger like ICQ with E2EE would indeed be awesome.︄
 
I think many did. There was Speak Freely︁ written in 1996 by John Walker. It was superior to pretty much anything back︂ then, including Microsoft NetMeeting. But please take your time to read the FAQ in the︃ end of life announcement, it contains good answers on how the internet evolved.

We are︄ now steps further from back then. There are plenty of chat protocols and clients mentioned︅ here, all with their advantages and shortcomings. You know why Facebook took off so well?︆ Because you could find friends by their real name as opposed to all other community︇ pages where everybody was hiding behind a nickname. And still two decades later, guys not︈ even half as smart as John Walker are flocking to OCT, hiding behind an alter︉ ego.

You see, there is Session and SimpleX, which pretty much is an ICQ with︊ encryption and privacy. But people don't use it nearly as much as WhatsApp simply because︋ you cannot find your friend that easily.
 
Never heard if it, but again I was just a︄ kid back in 1996. I will read the FAQ when I get some time over.︅ Thank you.
Yeah exactly, because of the simplicity and also friends suggestions. It also took︆ of so well because people were naive and didn't think everything would be stored forever︇ and owned by a company. It was new. Fast forward 20 years and most people︈ still don't care, "if you've got nothing to hide then why worry". They are not︉ yet aware of the possible implications of AI such as facial recognition, linguistic forensics, pattern︊ recognition etc. There is a reason why governments want to implement laws such as Chat︋ Control etc. They hate E2EE, they hate not being able to have control. Even if︌ government surveillance isn't of any concern to people with "nothing to hide" what about criminals︍ and other bad actors? WE ALL GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE whether we know it or︎ not.

Applications like Signal and WhatsApp is a blessing because of it's ease of use️ and should be used by everyone. For 95% of people they will be more than‌ enough. For more tech savvy there will always be other and more advanced alternatives and‍ layers you can add such as a VPN, Tor etc. Like you mentioned for example⁠ SimpleX that routes everything through Tor.

There is also PGP, but good luck getting normies⁤ to use that.
 
Yes perhaps to‌ you and me. Mailvelope is also a simple solution that works really well.
Proton to‍ Proton is good and easy. But for a non tech savvy to import PGP keys⁠ etc it's a problem. I've tried getting relatives and others to use PGP, it's a⁤ nightmare.
 
I got a bit tired of all these overly complicated setups, so I decided to‌ use SESSION for all the top secret stuff I talk to people about, and just‍ stick with simple TEAMS for everything else that doesn’t really matter. It was easy to⁠ move my contacts from Skype to Teams.
 
I understand you,⁤ but Teams is a nightmare for any kind of privacy and they also collect a⁣ sickening amount of data on you. If video meetings are important for you then I⁢ highly recommend https://jitsi.org/ instead. It also works directly in the browser for those that doesn't︀ want to install the client by using https://meet.jit.si/ I've used it on quite a few︁ occasions and it has worked flawlessly.
 
That’s exactly what I’m saying if you actually read my post. Use Teams for all the⁣ random stuff, and Sessions for the important things.
 
I did read it, I'm just saying Teams is horrible even if used for everything else‍ "that doesn't matter". But I get it, some people refuse to use anything else so⁠ it can be necessary. Just wanted to let you know that there are alternatives to⁤ use if you would like to. Even for the stuff that doesn't matter. But if⁣ you're comfortable having it on your device the rock on! 😉 We all live in different⁢ places and some are more Orwellian than others.
 
Met an American today, fleeing the US (works for the US Gov) to here after‌ Trump was brought in, made two remarks that surprised me (his job by his commentary‍ was working for the State in the form of Breaking Encryption (i surmised some form⁠ of law enforcement) what surprised me was he was into Crypto, which brought up the⁤ commentary.

1) Ledger is installing massive hardware servers in the US alongside the US doing⁣ themselves this is to determine the following.

- Transactions tagging US sourced wallets (all associated⁢ wallets - think metamask updating balance for all wallets in wallet with infura)
- Transactions︀ routed through the US nodes/miners et al (Jurisdiction Claims for Acts sourced overseas)
- US︁ is also unsure what data or access vulnerabilities occurred with the Ledger Founder Kidnap.

2) Line App (encrypted letter sealing) is actually like a massive siren for the US, when︂ people disembark into the US, with Line everything gets sucked up - remarked only Singal︃ is safe from them so far (not broken encryption).

Couple of Interesting Nuggets, i went︄ into the meeting thinking Whatsapp was a open nest of data sucking came out feeling︅ rather naked with my in-family communications obviously open to big gov lol
 
There's no money in such.

I did a Zero Knowledge Email Service way back in‌ '15 shuttered it around Covid period -> South Americans massively adopted it during the various‍ uprisings down there around the period - was weird reading about it in Spanish and⁠ little in English.

It also had a messenger solution, and burn function, still have the⁤ source, was web based and also a app, but most people just prefer to use⁣ stuff their friends use, even with our ZK Email solution, the issue you found is⁢ some email providers at the time didn't have similar counter key confirmation so the emails︀ would be in-readable, and then there's the issue that devices themselves upload stuff to servers︁ including communications and its unencrypted device side so the unencrypted data is uploaded (encrypted) to︂ the encrypted drive, but usually companies (think iPhone/Apple) had access when push came to shove︃ for cloud data (see the UK).
 
I installed Telegram too, figured out it is possible to hide your phone number there so⁢ people can't see it.
 
Yeah just be careful when‍ adding a new contact because there is a check mark that automatically checks "share number"⁠ when adding a new contact.

I'd also be careful discussing sensitive topics on Telegram since⁤ the founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France, god only knows what they agreed upon⁣ behind the scenes.
 
No way to hide it? I tried but‍ can't find it after hiding it.
 
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