• jaeme
    ·
    7 months ago

    Matrix was bankrolled by a Israeli tech firm for quite a long time until recently. Signal being bankrolled by all these different groups doesn't surprise me.

    I find the author's reading a bit sensationalist. The Tor network was first developed by the American military but later liberated as Free software. The signal protocol is open as well and has shown to protect user data.

    I do understand the worry though. If you don't like to endorse projects with shady funding (or are centralized) you can always use something like GNU Jami which uses a peer-to-peer messaging network based on account archives (which require ZERO personal information and are stored locally per device). It's pretty underrated.

    Signal is just easier for onboarding and the media attention around it helps provide that legitimacy.

    Whatsapp is infinitely far worse.

    • pooh [she/her, any]
      hexagon
      ·
      7 months ago

      I had no idea about Matrix’s funding and that is indeed concerning. This article talks a little about it, and I’ll have to read into it further when I have more time.

      I also hadn’t heard of GNU Jami but I’ll have to check that out.