If you're worried about group-chat security, I suggest http://silcnet.org/ http://silcnet.org/ , especially if it's just you and your friends. SILC provides cli

If you're worried about group-chat security, I suggest http://silcnet.org/ http://silcnet.org/ , especially if it's just you and your friends. SILC provides client-to-client trust, meaning as long as you trust the protocol you can be assured your communications aren't being watched even if the server or hosting provider is compromised. If you self-host IRC and use SSL you'll (probably) at least have the luxury of knowing when someone initiates a proceeding to acquire logs, although there's still the risk of someone going to your hosting provider or datacenter and compromising your server physically. A hosted IRC service seems like a bad idea overall; in addition to the Justice Department's ability to compel them to watch you (just like with Facebook Chat), there's no way for you to know if they're compromised by another third party.