I Love Computers and Technology

Was looking for the right place to post this... here is good. A lot of people are asking if I use Kik, or saying they use Kik. So I've lived into it a bit.. and if you think in terms of privacy (important when talking with strangers on the internet), you may want to try alternatives. So I've done a bit of digging and, after putting aside the really insecure stuff (fb messenger, Skype, kik, snapchat) and pretty secure stuff (whisper, secret, telegram) I've settled on Threema. It's cheap, great reviews, minimal data stored (can skip giving them phone numbers and whatever), and it's not US based so no men in suits showing up and demanding all their user data. Not open source (sad) but externally reviewed so.. good enough for now. Tried it out last week, very quick setup and easy to use. If you prefer something else let me know what it is and why?

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

HypnoKitten · 41-45, M

Woo thanks a lot, I'll try and check that one out too! As for security yea, nothing is ever fully secure. It's always a game of 'cost of security, value of what is protected, cost of breaking the security '. If a nation state is after an individual they'll get them. What I look for is reducing the attack surface and upping the cost past my potential value so it is too expensive for individuals / creepers / profiler tools / and hackers to bother with. Also to stay out of general reach of common law enforcement (on principle) so the only groups who might break in would not consider me enough of a bother to follow up.

Skype is fine on encryption to some degree but it is not end to end (Skype the company can decrypt and then use it to sell your data/ profile, especially now that MS owns them and has that giant data gathering push shown in win 10) and there are a lot of tutorials available for creepers to catch the IP and find it who you are. I do use it (video is top of the line) but only with friends or people I know reasonably well. (If I wouldn't give someone my phone number I generally won't skype with them). And I avoid certain topics.

The tools I've liked (why I ended up with the one I did - and I'll totally check out the other one) don't track personal data (address books, phone numbers, etc), don't store stuff on their server (though some said they didn't and independent reviewers found out otherwise) so they can't become a vector to attacks, the encryption is between the end points only (company doesn't have a description key), and the communication doesn't reveal information to the other party about who you are (until you are comfortable sharing it).

It's a bit much for private individuals but I've had people go stalker-nuts, my gf has had stalkers, every girl I've known has had at least one guy/girl who was just... *shiver* so yea. And I've seen enough ad tools to know how damaging it could be if they get too much data (they can inadvertantly reveal it - like when that one company emailed the girl congratulations on her upcoming baby and she hadn't told her father yet - or just mind manipulating you into purchases, or selling your info and generating spam, or tracking your friends through you..)