Hello fellow c/privacy members.
I’m not new to privacy related things but I had a hard time persuading my family members and friends to switch to Matrix/Element. It is a reponse to UK’s Online Security Bill and Investigative Powers Act that may soon in effect.
While it is just a preperation and planning in case those actually became law, I already face resistance from them. When I ask them would they switch, their first reaction is “Why one more app?” then follows with “That’s cumbersome.” or “I don’t want to learn a new app.” and suggest something more popular like Line, Telegram or Discord. Sometimes they would “Install WhatsApp because X is on there and he/she won’t install one more app just for you.”
What can I do to persuade them to use a new platform? Thanks in advance.
EDIT: I think I should elebroate more of what Online Security Bill and Investigative Powers Act does[1]. As far as I understand, OSB will break E2EE by require scanning data on client device, like CSAM but much more generic. IPA requires companies to submit security funcition to the government for approval before releasing, and disable such feature upon request. Apple[2], Single[3] and WhatsApp made the announancment of exiting the UK market totally or partically if two were signed into law.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/thenextweb.com/news/uk-investigatory-powers-act-default-surveillance-devices-privacy
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2023/07/21/apple-threatens-to-pull-facetime-and-imessage-from-the-uk
[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20230809125823/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65301510#2023-08-09T12:57:48+00:00
I have Matrix, Session, Singal, Telegram, and Discord. Telegram is saldomly used and Discord is just subscribed to a bunch of game communities. Signal is threatened by OSB and IPA, which announced by them that they will get out of the UK market if those are in effect. Then left Matrix and Session, both not used by anyone.
I would like to be flexible but the reality is there are not much choices. Only XMPP which I don’t have, nor natively supports E2EE which varied by clients.
Look into JMP.CHAT. it’s XMPP, with a phone number that is gatewayed to PBX for voice, and can send/receive SMS.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’m more surprise of it providing a phone number rather than XMPP.
From what I understand, many large tech companies will leave UK if those laws are passed. I highly doubt it will happen, and if it does, I bet it will take about five seconds for the government to realize how vastly they fucked up.