Original comment below but I decided instead to go for the following:
I am extremely proud of what work is being done online today to secure communications.
While we have companies telemetrying our native stacks[1], web browsers[2], and messaging platforms[3], we also have people working on software that doesn't do those things and still tries to empower the user to get what they need done without being a double agent for a 3rd party.
1 (windows 10, chrome OS, GMS android)
2 (cookies, pixels, fingerprinting, CDNs, chrome itself)
3 (whatsapp, FB messenger, telegram)
From OS[4] to browser[5] to messaging platform[6].
4 (debian, qubes)
5 (...maybe not? konqueror probably doesn't do telemetry?)
6 (irc probably, matrix, delta chat)
Matrix is IMHO in competition for mindshare not (directly) with WhatsApp, but with Signal.
Matrix | Signal
Increasingly decentralizable | Centralized
E2EE but not quite for metadata | E2EE and metadata-free mostly except recently requiring PINs and server-side storage
Federated with its costs (slower development etc) |
Nonfederated with its costs (outages etc)
Temptingly close to P2P or CS | only CS
No voice comms | Voice and video comms
No built-in social graph | social graph via phone (being worked on?)
OSS in practice | OSS in law but hard to contribute to
I am extremely proud of what work is being done online today to secure communications.
While we have companies telemetrying our native stacks[1], web browsers[2], and messaging platforms[3], we also have people working on software that doesn't do those things and still tries to empower the user to get what they need done without being a double agent for a 3rd party.
1 (windows 10, chrome OS, GMS android)
2 (cookies, pixels, fingerprinting, CDNs, chrome itself)
3 (whatsapp, FB messenger, telegram)
From OS[4] to browser[5] to messaging platform[6].
4 (debian, qubes)
5 (...maybe not? konqueror probably doesn't do telemetry?)
6 (irc probably, matrix, delta chat)
Matrix is IMHO in competition for mindshare not (directly) with WhatsApp, but with Signal.
Matrix | Signal
Increasingly decentralizable | Centralized
E2EE but not quite for metadata | E2EE and metadata-free mostly except recently requiring PINs and server-side storage
Federated with its costs (slower development etc) | Nonfederated with its costs (outages etc)
Temptingly close to P2P or CS | only CS
No voice comms | Voice and video comms
No built-in social graph | social graph via phone (being worked on?)
OSS in practice | OSS in law but hard to contribute to