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Matrix has become the messaging app of choice for top-secret communications

wired.co.uk

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Re: Matrix has become the messaging app of choice for top-secret communications

#3

Post by gen3 »

munawwar wrote: post #2

Wonder what people here think of signal. I find it more user friendly than matrix. Any info about it's security vs matrix?

Matrix uses the same encryption as signal, one of their implementations can be found here: https://gitlab.matrix.org/matrix-org/olm

Re: Matrix has become the messaging app of choice for top-secret communications

#4

Post by jmcnulty »

I tried this recently for the first time using Elements and have struggled with it. There's no message threading, so it's very hard to discover the history and flow of a subject when it's embedded in a larger conversation. I'll keep an eye on this and check back from time to time, but right now it's not for me.

Re: Matrix has become the messaging app of choice for top-secret communications

#5

Post by sschueller »

munawwar wrote: post #2

Wonder what people here think of signal. I find it more user friendly than matrix. Any info about it's security vs matrix?

Signal is Moxie and I personally don't trust Moxie and have some issues with his attitude. Does this make signal unsafe, no of course not but I don't trust it even if the encryption is top notch.

Also remember you must have a phone number to use signal.

Re: Matrix has become the messaging app of choice for top-secret communications

#7

Post by fragileone »

munawwar wrote: post #2

Wonder what people here think of signal. I find it more user friendly than matrix. Any info about it's security vs matrix?

Signal hides metadata better however it's based in the US, you are required to use your phone number as an identifier and Moxie refuses to allow Signal to be decentralised. Security-wise they both use the double-ratchet algorithm to encrypt messages.

Re: Matrix has become the messaging app of choice for top-secret communications

#10

Post by junon »

munawwar wrote: post #2

Wonder what people here think of signal. I find it more user friendly than matrix. Any info about it's security vs matrix?

My issue with Matrix is the philsophy attached to it. The founders and its most vitriolic supports are activists, through and through, and view Signal as a messaging app for activists.

When the Cellebrite malware was added to Signal by the developer(s) I mentioned that Cellebrite was used by legitimate phone carriers to transfer data between an old phone and a new phone.

I asked why my elderly mother, with whom I speak to over Signal, should be liable for a potentially broken Cellebrite machine (costing thousands) if the Signal malware were to break it. There's no precedent on whether or not she'd be liable, so there's a possibility she would be.

She never consented to her phone being used as a weapon. She doesn't understand the stuff going on. She uses Signal because it's simple, easy to understand, I'm just a few button presses away (we don't live near each other) and the call quality is unmatched.

I got a few very angry responses, telling me to uninstall Signal if I wasn't willing to be an activist for their agenda. They were perfectly okay with their philosophy being projected onto their users and didn't see any issue in the fact that users did not consent to it.

Which is strange, because they're annoyed with other Big Tech firms doing... well, the same exact thing.

I really hope Matrix improves its UX since I would immediately switch my family over to it if they could just understand how it worked.

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