this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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This is good reading on XMPP
https://privacy.awiki.org/im.html#XMPP
And one about matrix
https://hackea.org/notas/matrix.html
I think that XMPP is obviously the superior choice here. Matrix is funded by venture capitalists that need to make money some way and they are actually recollecting users' data for that.
Do you have a source for the claim that collecting userdata is ultimately what funds Matrix?
have you read the article I linked?
I didn't say it was ultimately what funds matrix, they sell servers too, but they recollect data that's for sure.
Quoting the article here:
matrix.org and vector.im receive a lot of private, personal and identifiable data on a regular basis, or metadata that can be used to precisely identify and/or track users/server, their social graph, usage pattern and potential location. This is possible both by the default configuration values in synapse/Riot that do not promote privacy, and by specific choices made by their developers to not disclose, inform users or resolve in a timely manner several known behaviors of the software.
Data sent on a potential regular basis based on a common web/desktop+smartphone usage even with a self-hosted client and Homeserver:
With default settings, they allow unrestricted, non-obfuscated public access to the following potentially personal data/info:
I did, yes. TBH it is very anti-Matrix right out of the gate, makes a mountain out of a molehill and it even admits that it contains FUD.
There's a couple of things that are misleading in it (for example the section on bridges) and the critique basically boils down to "if you use the identity servers that are run by Matrix.org with your self-hosted homeserver they can see the info you send to them" and "Google Analytics in Element is bad".
All in all I didn't find it very convincing, and very lacking in nuance.