Secure Alternatives
Here I explore some alternatives to Insecure social media. Social media makes their money from selling your browsing history and brand preferences. Some counties have restrictions that personal data needs to stay in the country.
Friendica distributed, federated social ActivityPub,Disporia,OStatus compatible Social and Microblogging
Mastadon.social distributed, federated social ActivityPub,OStatus compatible Microblogging focus
RocketChat like Slack team filesharing, searchable. Android, Windows, Linux.
NextCloud like DropBox with plugins. SelfHosted. Dropbox has started limiting the number of clients that can attach to an account to 3.
Signal for Android conveniently integrates SMS and chat, video chat, voice chat. High encryption when possible. Reboot after installing or it gets a little screwy.
Telegram Cross platform, highly encrypted chat
Wire Cross platform, high encryption, video chat, voice chat, leave-a-voice-message send files, messaging etc. does not require your cell number; can be installed on your child’s wifi only phone.
Why not Facetime? Apple only. it has suffered recent (Jan2019) problems and Apple does not make the code open for scrutiny. Apple says it has AES256 encryption but their implementation cannot be verified as good.
Why not SMS? No encryption. When SMS protocol was designed phones didn’t have the horsepower to do encryption. Your provider will say they do the encryption but that leaves your message unencrypted between your phone and the cell tower, while it is flying through the air for anyone to see. The place where your info most needs encryption, is unencrypted. Your provider will tell you its a private network, but is it private when everyone owns a cellular radio? I haven’t even told you how scary SIM swap attacks are.
Why not Facebook? Facebook has so many problems, It is the subject of an FTC investigation. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., says “Facebookâs record of failed leadership & neglect is overwhelming” It uses questionable practices like Paying minors to track their cell phone activity.
Twitter; entire account is either privte or public no granularity.
