Not accepting WhatsApp's terms

General lounge
#1

What is good/popular replacement for WhatsApp and Facebook?

I am not accepting WhatsApps terms. As result my WhatsApp will terminate Feb 8th.
I am moving to Signal.

Is there a way I can sent out a broadcast message to all my WhatsApp contacts and inform them so they can reach me in the future. Changing apps is like changing phone numbers. I don’t want to loose track of my friends and contacts.

I am doing this in part for my HK friends who don’t want to share their meta data.

My wife a constant Facebook user is also leaving Facebook and WhatsApp.
What should I suggest for her?

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#2

Signal is the the most similar alternative to WhatsApp in functionality, UX and layout. It’s open source, GPL, and run by an NPO foundation. Signal (software) - Wikipedia

I’ve used both Signal and WhatsApp for a long time, I plan to not accept their [WhatsApp] updated terms on principal and just stop using it.

In Canada as an average person it probably doesn’t really matter and the largest consequence is that likely means Facebook intends to add targetted advertising to WhatsApp and/or to reinforce their profiling for advertising on their other platforms. But at the end of the day, I’m just sick of software that is so background chatty and intentionally obtuse on valuing privacy.

Signal has been around for years, organization is rooted in security and it’s interests are aligned with privacy. Their lack of metadata has been tested in the US courts.

I’d recommend Signal, it checks the security/privacy boxes while still offering feature parity and familiarity to WhatsApp.

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#3

Agree that Signal is a great alternative to WhatsApp. Personally I like Telegram’s UX better, but I don’t think its security is as good as Signal’s.

EDIT: I should’ve added that I’m a big fan of DeltaChat

#4

Security professionals have recommended Signal and Wickr.
I prefer Signal

#5

I’m a co-admin of a FB group. Some members are now asking about alternatives.
What are your thoughts, recommendations etc.? (MeWe?) Of course it would have to be easy to administer.

#6

Signal is great, and fun fact, the CEO Moxie may or may not be a Noisebridger external-content.duckduckgo.com

For more hardcore options:

Open Privacy Research Society is doing some great stuff in the space, and their chat client Cwtch (prounounced “kutch”) is said to be entering beta soon. Designed for metadata-resistant group communications. They are also based here in Vancouver!

https://openprivacy.ca/work/cwtch/

Support your local cryptographers!

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#7

And of course, if anyone really wants to communicate securely with someone, there’s Tin Foil Chat, which secures the endpoint device (which is the weak link in say, using Signal).

I’d be happy to help anyone get set up!

#8

How secure is protonmail.com , if both sides use it?

There’s also wnlabs.com . The website is dated, but what about the underlying technology? ( and there’s a BCIT connection).

https://www.wnlabs.com/pdf/Free_Unbreakable_Data_Protection.pdf

#9

Here’s my take

Short answer: very good

Protonmail to another protonmail account is essentially the same as using PGP keys for that user. You can’t deny in the future that you two conversed,* but it seems that no government in the world will be able to read it for some time, perhaps decades into the future, if ever. Also, Proton does not have the keys to decrypt your data, you do. They would be unable to turn over the plaintext of your stored emails to any 3rd party even if they wanted to. The physical security of their servers seems very good too.

Brief overview here:
https://protonmail.com/security-details

The weakest link in the chain would be your computer/phone/tablet that you use to access protonmail.

The Proton team is exceedingly legit. I believe Proton and Mullvad have been the only VPNs that Firefox has endorsed, Proton being the first.

*Someone plz help me check this for Protonmail’s implementation :slight_smile:

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#10

Seems there are lots of us interested in our personal privacy, protecting us from targeted monitoring.
Before 2020 this was not necessary.
Now think about every conversion I have with my HK friends. So many things we implicitly have agreed not to talk about.

I would be interested in learning more about cwtch. You should arrange a tech talk.

But expect I will stick to signal, I need an app that my many non-tech friends can easily move to from WhatsApp, including my daughters’ school.

#11

Signal is also very good

In comparison to protonmail, Signal has the added benefit of forward secrecy; it generates a new key for each new back and forth in the conversation. Net result: your encryption will be harder to break and less costly if you have your key stolen than messages sent with the same single key each time as with say PGP.

Signal is set up as a nonprofit funded by donations, in part to prevent the Whatsapp situation from happening after it was acquired by Facebook. As is, they aren’t looking to maximize profits and aren’t looking to sell. It’s a high functioning open source project with a thriving testing community. The CEO is also an anarchist, freighthopping vagabond who has a long track record of not giving a shit about money and giving a lot of shits about community and individual rights.

Signal also has great features: disappearing messages, sealed sender, and usernames instead of phone numbers are coming soon. Plus that good karma vibe.

As I mentioned above, Signal has amazingly strong encryption, which works to keep your conversations private and secure in transit. Your phone however, can most certainly be compromised, so the messages represent a liability as they are typed and once they are received and stored on your device.

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