Stop Using: Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Wechat, Telegram
Start Using:
🔻 Keet offers self-hosting capabilities, allowing users to control their data and communications without relying on centralized servers. End-to-end encryption ensures private conversations, making it resistant to interception or monitoring.
🔻 Nostr Protocol: Nostr's decentralized social network prioritizes privacy and freedom of expression, providing a platform for secure communication without interference from centralized authorities. Noise Protocol encryption ensures message integrity, while verified identities add an extra layer of trust.
🔻 SimpleX Chat is a fully decentralized messaging app with no central servers, no phone number or email required, minimal metadata collected, and strong anonymity through its user-centric design. Users can run their own servers and enjoy self-destructing messages for added privacy and censorship resistance.
🔻Signal provides a balance between privacy and usability through its strong end-to-end encryption. While it collects some metadata and requires a phone number, its widespread adoption ensures robust censorship-resistant properties. Signal's strong encryption requires a phone number for registration, collects some metadata such as contact discovery, is centralized with servers controlled by Signal Foundation.
🔻 Wire: Wire's self-hosting capabilities and integration with decentralized platforms like Matrix and XMPP provide users with control over their communications, making it resistant to censorship. Flexible communication options prioritize user privacy and security. However, Wire stores a list of the people/pseudonyms you contact, so they do know who is talking with whom, at least in broad strokes (your identity is as "private" as it comes up in people searches on Wire).
🔻 DarkFi: DarkFi's IPFS-based architecture ensures secure communication without relying on centralized servers or intermediaries. Its decentralized nature makes it more resilient against censorship and surveillance attempts.
🔻 Briar is designed with offline-first, encrypted messaging that resists censorship and surveillance through a decentralized node network. Messages remain private and securely transmitted, even in situations where online connectivity is limited or restricted.
🔻 Threema offers end-to-end encryption, anonymous ID options, and limited metadata collection. While centralized with servers controlled by Threema GmbH, it does have robust privacy features. Threema partially discloses its source code, allows users to use an anonymous ID instead of a phone number, collects some limited metadata, is centralized with servers controlled by Threema GmbH, requires a one-time fee, and offers robust privacy features.
🔻 Session App uses a decentralized a messaging architecture using Onion routing (Tor) for added anonymity, requiring no phone number or email, collecting minimal metadata, and featuring user IDs as public keys to provide strong anonymity. Open-source community servers allow users to run their own nodes and maintain control over their communications.
People often think of Telegram as a privacy solution, but they are mistaken, as it offers no E2EE unless bank a/c linked, which leaks KYC info. To sign up, you need to provide a phone number. Clever enough people may work around these restrictions eSims & disposable credit cards. It doesn't censor content though, which is useful.
Dig Deeper:
https://intego.com/mac-security-blog/6-secure-messaging-app-options-for-mac-and-ios/
https://x.com/schmidt1024/status/1829449672496234867