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Yeah, but there are new options. I've seen Telegram and Briar both listed as options that the Hong Kong protesters have used. When a company sells out to the st

Yeah, but there are new options. I've seen Telegram and Briar both listed as options that the Hong Kong protesters have used. When a company sells out to the state, it's time to switch to another one. Briar, in particular, was made specifically for dissidents and protesters.

Avamander 7y ago
People should seriously consider Keybase with it's non-required use of a phone number and strong encryption in every chat. I'm not in any way affiliated with them but I just don't like Telegram suggested with it's unaudited homebrewn crypto and Russian roots.
- deepsun 7y ago
  Crypto that's not "on" by default.
  - WilTimSon 7y ago
    Their encryption is on by default, just not the end-to-end kind. I know that's pedantic but it's true.
    - Avamander 7y ago
      By that logic you could call FB Messenger encrypted and IRC, but that's not really the encryption we're talking about.
      - WilTimSon 7y ago
        Except we all know that FB harvests every ounce of data they can get, of course we disregard their encryption. But Telegram hasn't been caught doing that and I haven't seen any reports of their regular encryption being broken. Not exactly a fair comparison.
- WilTimSon 7y ago
  The unaudited thing is definitely raising questions but, come on, let's not act like people being from a certain country should automatically discard them. Signal is made by Americans and so is Briar, I'd hope neither are thought of as NSA stooges or something. Telegram creators got essentially run out of the country and the app itself was banned in Russia, that's a pretty good sign that there's no cooperation with the government. Not suggesting we put blind trust into it, just saying it's unfair to judge an app by where its makers come from.
  - Avamander 7y ago
    It's definitely not a single thing (e.g. origin) I find untrustworthy, it's the things combined (homemade crypto + Russian origin).
  - secfirstmd 7y ago
    I thought Briar was made in the UK?

Avamander 7y ago

People should seriously consider Keybase with it's non-required use of a phone number and strong encryption in every chat. I'm not in any way affiliated with them but I just don't like Telegram suggested with it's unaudited homebrewn crypto and Russian roots.

deepsun 7y ago
Crypto that's not "on" by default.
- WilTimSon 7y ago
  Their encryption is on by default, just not the end-to-end kind. I know that's pedantic but it's true.
  - Avamander 7y ago
    By that logic you could call FB Messenger encrypted and IRC, but that's not really the encryption we're talking about.
    - WilTimSon 7y ago
      Except we all know that FB harvests every ounce of data they can get, of course we disregard their encryption. But Telegram hasn't been caught doing that and I haven't seen any reports of their regular encryption being broken. Not exactly a fair comparison.
WilTimSon 7y ago
The unaudited thing is definitely raising questions but, come on, let's not act like people being from a certain country should automatically discard them. Signal is made by Americans and so is Briar, I'd hope neither are thought of as NSA stooges or something. Telegram creators got essentially run out of the country and the app itself was banned in Russia, that's a pretty good sign that there's no cooperation with the government. Not suggesting we put blind trust into it, just saying it's unfair to judge an app by where its makers come from.
- Avamander 7y ago
  It's definitely not a single thing (e.g. origin) I find untrustworthy, it's the things combined (homemade crypto + Russian origin).
- secfirstmd 7y ago
  I thought Briar was made in the UK?