It isn't, but it is definitely the best switch if you have privacy in mind. A lot of other options have various areas they are lacking in. Signal is a real gold standard of privacy and security, and open-source, so location matters much less.

[–] philpo@feddit.org 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It is not even close to the gold standard of privacy and still falls within the Homeland Security act as well as Trump shenanigans - and are hosted on Google, Amazon and MS servers.

While as far as we know their encryption is close to gold standard, the foundation and concept itself has massive issues one should be aware of.

[–] ErenOnizuka@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There is no european alternative though. Maybe threema, but people don’t want to pay for a messaging app. (Even though they did in the past with WhatsApp on iOS)

[–] philpo@feddit.org 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Or Matrix...

[–] ErenOnizuka@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There are unencrypted messages in Matrix though. Not by default, but it’s there.

[–] philpo@feddit.org 1 points 3 days ago

Hardly an argument. The clients warn against it,it's not default, has to be done very intentionally,etc. That's on one level with "I screenshot messages and post them on facebook" - and in that case the other end would not be warned about it.

The downsides of Matrix exist (key exchange, performance, audio/video, federation issues), but this is not one of them. Overall it's as secure as Signal but, I totally must agree on that, not as easy as signal. Which partially comes with the federation, but partially also due to ongoing issues the current development fails to adress so far.

Threema has the downside of being swiss hosted (which sadly is an issue by now due to their legislation) and being from a company very close to the swiss goverment but at least the Orange Tittler can't shut it down directly.