Re:WhatsApp alternatives that respect privacy
by tialaramex on Monday February 15, 2021 @02:41PM
(#26146355)
The reason people recommend a private homeserver is that Matrix will end up knowing a bunch of metadata, so the thinking is we'll put the server on this Raspberry Pi in my spare room, now the Secret Police can't get it.
With the Signal protocol this isn't a thing. Where metadata has to live on Signal's servers (e.g. "new-style" groups where you can have moderators) it's encrypted and the servers can do operations on the metadata without understanding what it means in a human sense. They go to considerable lengths to ensure they have no idea who their users are, who they talk to, or what about.
With Matrix you have to choose, Stand Out by setting up the private server which may attract problems, or Don't Stand Out but give away your metadata to the big public servers and assume the Secret Police have it.
With the Signal protocol this isn't a thing. Where metadata has to live on Signal's servers (e.g. "new-style" groups where you can have moderators) it's encrypted and the servers can do operations on the metadata without understanding what it means in a human sense. They go to considerable lengths to ensure they have no idea who their users are, who they talk to, or what about.
With Matrix you have to choose, Stand Out by setting up the private server which may attract problems, or Don't Stand Out but give away your metadata to the big public servers and assume the Secret Police have it.