I have tried 3 messaging apps that do not require phone number: this has been my experience

Both WhatsApp and Telegram or Facebook Messenger, the most used messaging applications in Spain, will ask for personal data to register, such as the phone number or email address.

In this way, associated metadata will not only have this type of sensitive information, but they could also reveal the IP address of the device to which you are connected.

If you need to protect your privacy and anonymity, either because you work as a journalist in authoritarian regimes or simply want to ensure that your private messages do not read third parties, there are several tools that I have tried and I already consider as necessary.

Of course, they do not belong to private companies, which not only can you completely review your code and modify it, but you will join an extensive community that bets on the freedom of expression on the Internet.

Here I will talk about independent apps to the most used, such as Session, Briar y SimpleX Chateach of these with their peculiarities, although sharing the essential, to offer the greatest privacy to the user.

Session

One of the functionalities that users have requested more for WhatsApp is the possibility of identification without mandatory sensitive information, such as telephone number or email.

However, there are instant messaging applications that allow to easily identify through a simple alias, which can be your real name or an invented one, with characteristics aimed at guaranteeing that no one, except the interlocutors, can access a private conversation.

In Session, everything is open source, so you can easily install it through the Google Play Store or in iOS, as well as easily from the official Github page. Of course, you can contribute improvements as long as you are programmer.

As a great advantage, This Open Source tool does not collect any metadatothat is, you will have your exact location totally protected, in addition to the connection data of the device or the network you use. A vital element for journalists or activists, for example.

Precisely, Use the routing of torthe most private and anonymous browser on the planet if it is known to use correctly. This is essential to mask data such as the IP address, which is usually associated in the most used apps with the metadata of a message sent.

Additionally, in the official session forum you will find several tips to make your messages totally private, with recommendations to previously eliminate metadata, for example, by sending images and documents.

Briar

Before starting to write this article, I totally ignored the existence of Briar, although it has been one of this year’s great surprises, all for the great care in freedom of expression and free software, something visible by the biography of his human team.

Among the contributors to Briar, great names of the technology industry appear, for ethical hackers to activists from the free software. As is more than logical, It is open source and anyone can contribute to their improvement.

As in Session, this application does not trust its information on the central server, but the messages that users exchange are directly synchronized in their devices.

In this way, as great advantages it has anticipation of an internet cut, since it can maintain the information even through the network card – the one details the MAC address of a physical device.

In the same way, Use the Tor network to prevent a user from being identified at any pointwhich additionally protects unwanted surveillance, especially for professions such as activists or journalists.

As you can see, it is an application very aimed at favoring freedom of expression and private communications.

SimpleX

It may be simplex to be the strictest of these applications, since unlike session and briar, Do not collect even random numbers that are associated with a user; Thus, it does not have any type of identifier.

Of course, stores all user data exclusively in the customer device in question, totally encrypted and allowing their portability; The simplex server temporarily keeps messages until they are received and deleted permanently.

Here the optional connection to Tor is also possible, although it requires some additional steps, such as the installation of the Orbot application, in addition to the activation of the proxy socks5 –VPN in iOS users.

In practice, Simplex uses 2 different messages of messagestotally separated, to ensure that shipments and receptions are made on different servers; With this, he ensures that his network is fully decentralized.

Personally, this is the only messaging platform on the list that does not allow identification in any way, to prevent the Internet provider or an attacker from observing the connection of the users or the number of messages they send.

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Tags: Open source, proof, privacy, instant messaging, cybersecurity