What’s the closest thing we have to a perfect private messanger?
In my mind the perfect private messanger is both completely secure, and also completely anonymous.
All the mainstream messengers can pretty much ensure the contents of the message will not be revealed…but that is not good enough. I want to be able to deploy and establish a completely anonymous AND private channel of communication on a dime without having to jump through extreme operational security hoops.
Does it really exist?
Session, Signal, Matrix, and more.
Your own xmpp server
Can’t believe nobody brought up i2p.
Messages sent through i2p in theory would be secure and anonymous. With an envelope anology, no way to tell if an envelope stops at a particular house or gets forwarded on, and also they can only see bags of envelopes and not a specific envelope.
Briar, SimpleX, I2Pchat on desktop, maybe LXMF/Reticulum/Sideband over I2P if you want to get techy.
SimpleX is currently the best one possible.
All the security of signal without needing a phone number.
Everything can be through tor. Contact link can be formed with a one time use code that you DM someone privately.
Anything more advanced and you’re basically in internet dead drop territory. An encoded message on a pastebin through tor. Congratulations, you’ve entered pedophile/terrorist level security realm.
Simplex does check alot of those boxes… but smp traffic is easily identifiable unless your jumping through the major hoops of establishing a totally anonymous proxy.
An encoded message on a pastebin through tor. Congratulations, you’ve entered pedophile/terrorist level security realm.
Thats to bad being anonymous and secure puts you in that category. It shouldn’t!
Honestly, pedos & terrorists get the whole world cooperation on doxing them. So if they’re not using a tool or method then it’s not proof against nation states.
Why the need for complete anonymity though? Literally only pedos operate at that level so that nobody can squeal on the others if they are busted (they inevitably need to mess up a real kid because their CSAM isn’t good enough).
This kind of mindset is what make the privacy community seem like outcasts. Yes, pedophiles and other criminals would benefit from complete anonymity, but that does not mean we should draw the line at how anonymous someone gets to be because “only pedos operate at that level”.
Why not XMPP? Its anonymous, E2EE, etc.
I use XMPP and it’s good. SimpleX is even better at anonymising meta data afaik
…SIMPLEX (the app)
SimpleX?
Tox would also be fantastic, but they need to improve their encryption and get it audited. Also, some nicer UIs in the various clients would be nice.
Lot of people mentioning SimpleX but I can’t imagine trying to make someone go online at the same time as me to start sending each other messages without being annoyed. It also relies on funding from the British state IIRC.
On the other hand XMPP is a W3C internet standard, the server is super lightweight, plenty of tools and bridges work with it. Movim uses it, which is like an encrypted Mastodon where you can selectively make a post public but otherwise gates everything behind a login. Also you can send messages on the main phone network with the paid Cheogram service, but I realize that an unencrypted SMS relay is not a priority for everyone. I think it’s the bee’s knees.
I think you don’t want to know the real answer. It sounds like you want a phone app, but what you really have to do is flush your phone down the toilet and use a totally different approach. Also, there is absolutely no way to avoid difficult opsec. The communications technology is irrelevant since the greatest vulnerability in any security system is the people who use it. Do you think the private messenger software will free sessions with your therapist from spying? Guess again.
As the saying used to go, you’re seeking a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem.
At first I read ‘The Perfect Private Massager’
You want both, a completely anonymous AND completely private channel of communications? I mean, not to sound sarcastic, when you find one, please do share. There are no absolutes. For every technology, there exists or will soon exist, an equal, yet undoing technology. I have amended this to exclude most strong ciphers as pointed out by one of the Lemmies here.
