still hella confused as to why self-proclaimed privacy advocates—even teams like @privacyguides—are pushing @element so hard despite the data collection & sharing practices, the loosey-goosey metadata usage, and the fact that they host on AWS.
still hella confused as to why self-proclaimed privacy advocates—even teams like @privacyguides—are pushing @element so hard despite the data collection & sharing practices, the loosey-goosey metadata usage, and the fact that they host on AWS.
Element isn’t perfect, but what’s a better alternative? A giant Signal group would be a horrible idea, since everyone’s phone numbers would be exposed to the other members (plus there’s a 150 group member limit), and Discord is obviously much worse than Element (from a privacy perspective).
@sp6 oh i’m not suggesting Signal, though i trust it and use a FOSS client version of it. i agree with you there and would never pitch Discord either, but Element seems much more open to data leakage (bc of the bridges feature) than any other platform and lacks true decentralization (since everyone just uses the main homeserver) and ephemeral messaging, which makes it a non-starter for me.
i think Briar, Cwtch, Session, Simplex, and Tox are where we should be looking, no? or even @syphon over Element if Matrix is what we’re set on using (based on privacy policy).
Just a quick glance at all of those:
-Briar, Tox, and Cwtch don’t have iOS clients
-SimpleX
doesn’t have a desktop GUIhas issues with big groups (see comment below)-Session has a 100-person group chat limit
-Syphon’s own github states they are “still in alpha and we do not recommend using it where proven and independently verified security is required.” Plus, they haven’t had a release in over a year, so I’m not sure it’s still maintained.
Element (or most Matrix clients) don’t have any of those issues. Like I said, it’s not perfect, but I see why it’s recommended. All decent alternatives have significant downsides
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Bridges only work in rooms that aren’t encrypted, I think.
Some bridges support encryption and even if they don’t there’s a tool to make it so they do pantalaimon
Everyone doesn’t use the main HS sure it is alot of people but alot also don’t use it