Maintaining contact with the outside world is becoming increasingly difficult for the temporary residents of Melitopol. Popular instant messengers are “broken”, and some are even dangerous to use.
Russian security forces hack user accounts, restore and read deleted messages. The authorities help them with this in every way possible by blocking secure messengers and forcing developers to collect user data. How to protect yourself in such a situation?
Journalists of the Russian opposition publication “draft“We checked and they are sharing useful information.
Signal, Element, SimpleX Chat, Session: instant messengers are considered the most secure
A sign
It is the most secure of the most popular instant messengers. However, Russian authorities banned it in early August 2024 to prevent “terrorists and terrorists” from using it. Sign is open source (both the app and the backend), end-to-end encryption is enabled by default, and data is transferred using a proprietary protocol that is considered one of the most better. Despite the restriction of Roskomnadzor, the messenger can still be used. The “First Section” provides the following instructions:
“Open Signals, follow this path and enable censorship around: Settings → Privacy → Advanced → Censorship distribution. This option enables the redirection of traffic through Google servers. To an outside observer, it will be no different from using Google services. And as long as Google hasn’t been blocked yet, this bypass method will work.”
Element (and other messengers in the Matrix family)
Free decentralized messenger with end-to-end encryption – data is encrypted on the sender’s device and decrypted only on the recipient’s device. The user has the opportunity to choose the server where the account will be registered. When you register, you don’t need a phone number: all you need is an email. The “Greenhouse of Social Technologies” described detailed instructions on how to register with Element.
SimpleX chat
Another free decentralized messenger. There are no established ways to identify the user in his system: no name, no phone number, no email. Communication takes place using one-time QR codes. Detailed instructions for installation are detailed on the courier’s website.
Briar
It is also a decentralized messenger with end-to-end encryption. The main feature is offline operation – if there is no access to the Internet, Briar allows you to exchange messages via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi within a local network. Installation instructions are detailed on the courier’s website.
Session
This messenger also does not collect or store data about users, and all messages are saved locally on the user’s device. It is based on the Lokinet network, which is similar to Tor, allowing anonymous communication through encrypted channels. You don’t need a phone number or even an email to sign up. Instead, users are given a unique identifier (Session ID) that is used for communication. This ID can be shared with other users to add you to their contacts without them knowing your phone number or other personal information. You can download and install the messenger from the official website.
What is wrong with instant messengers as popular as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, iMessage or Telegram?
Human rights activists recommend not using the most popular instant messengers, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, iMessage or Telegram, to transmit sensitive information. For example, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and iMessage actively cooperate with authorities and provide them with user information upon request. Although Viber refused to cooperate with the Russian authorities, it diligently collects the personal data of its users.
Telegram is considered relatively secure, but end-to-end encryption is used here only in confidential conversations, the source code of the server part of the application is closed, and in addition, issues there when the messenger published the data of Russian users at the request of the authorities.
Human rights activists also note that many instant messengers have a common vulnerability – saving a copy of communications in the device’s cloud, for example in iCloud or OneDrive. Intelligence agencies can access it by court order.
VK, Yandex, TamTam and other Russian products: are they worth downloading and installing on your devices?
In recent years, Russian IT companies have also presented their “answer” to foreign messenger developers. Now in the import input market there are several domestic analogues of popular chat applications. For example, VK products (VK Messenger, VK Teams), Yandex Messenger, Tam-Tam (Mail.Ru Group).
All of them position themselves as safe messengers for daily and work communication, and as advantages they note their inclusion in the list of Russian software. However, as human rights activists confirm, in Russia, as in TOT, IT products of this type are under the control of security forces, and developers can hardly escape such of control.
The reason lies both in Russian laws and in their law enforcement practices. Russian companies must store and hand over any information related to a specific user, at the request of security forces, including data about his correspondence.
Access to many applications that monitor users’ lives (taxi, food, travel cards, etc.), allows you to actively monitor specific people, allowing you to know your daily routine, places visited, etc.
Russian messengers are not an exception here, but, on the contrary, they add to the picture by having access to letters, calls and user subscriptions. Therefore, according to human rights activists, all the differences between domestic communication methods come down not to their safety, but to the convenience of the interface.
2024-09-24 05:40:53
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