> There's simply no case that can be made that encrypted email is as secure as a modern secure messenger.
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Of course there is. I can send an encrypted email to anyone and be guaranteed that only that person has access to it, even if I have to give them instructions on how to decrypt it.
I can't do that with Whatsapp because it's closed source. I can't do that with Signal because nobody has Signal. Everyone has email.
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There's also the problem that messengers like Whatsapp and Signal are tied to my phone and so to my identity. With email I can make a free, new email account with almost any provider and send an anonymous, encrypted email from a public Wifi with a spoofed MAC.
You can't get that level of anonymity that easily from using a phone. Every phone provider I know will at least want to keep a record of your ID before giving you a new SIM card.
-- BEGIN SCRATCH THIS
Of course there is. I can send an encrypted email to anyone and be guaranteed that only that person has access to it, even if I have to give them instructions on how to decrypt it.
I can't do that with Whatsapp because it's closed source. I can't do that with Signal because nobody has Signal. Everyone has email.
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There's also the problem that messengers like Whatsapp and Signal are tied to my phone and so to my identity. With email I can make a free, new email account with almost any provider and send an anonymous, encrypted email from a public Wifi with a spoofed MAC.
You can't get that level of anonymity that easily from using a phone. Every phone provider I know will at least want to keep a record of your ID before giving you a new SIM card.
EDIT: I concede my first argument sucked.