📆 February 7, 2021 | ⏱️ 1 minute read | 🏷️ computing

[Video] You Should Delete Your Whatsapp ASAP

TheHatedOne tells us why no one should be using Whatsapp.

Video Link

Matrix

The only gripe I have about the video is the same one I had in Fixing Social Media for Good. While Matrix is federated and infinitely better than Whatsapp, federation still tends toward centralization. Also Matrix doesn’t protect metadata either and as TheHatedOne mentions, leaking metadata is really bad for a communications platform even if data is protected.

Signal

Signal says it protects metadata, but there’s no way for users to verify that besides taking Signal’s word for it and Signal is centralized. So neither Signal nor Matrix are the final solution to secure communications.

Cwtch

Peer to peer is the best solution because there’s no way for it to tend towards centralization. Once cwtch.im (Cwtch is Welsh for hug/cuddle) is stable it will probably be the best peer to peer instant messaging solution since it can verifiably protect metadata and have encrypted group conversations. It’s also built on Tor which is the most tested, most researched and most used anonymity network out there.