This smartphone was marketed as an encrypted secure device that "enforces your right to privacy". As it turns out the phone was developed by the FBI and AFP ...
The decoy feature seems interesting, but it's most likely just going to be security theater to anyone who gets their hands on your device (plus phones are so commonplace that an "Anom" phone will dry snitch on you). A proprietary chat app probably set off all the honeypot flags (Please just use XMPP, Jami, Signal or Matrix).
A good litmus test for privacy will always be the measure of Free software within the OS.
Free software will always be the most secure because everyone knows how it works and no one can merge backdoors or honeypots into the code without all the other maintainers noticing.
Or at least bring able to find out during an audit after a merge in the worst case.
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.
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.
The decoy feature seems interesting, but it's most likely just going to be security theater to anyone who gets their hands on your device (plus phones are so commonplace that an "Anom" phone will dry snitch on you). A proprietary chat app probably set off all the honeypot flags (Please just use XMPP, Jami, Signal or Matrix).
A good litmus test for privacy will always be the measure of Free software within the OS.
Free software will always be the most secure because everyone knows how it works and no one can merge backdoors or honeypots into the code without all the other maintainers noticing.
Or at least bring able to find out during an audit after a merge in the worst case.
About Signal... https://yasha.substack.com/p/signal-is-a-government-op-85e
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.
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.