The article alleges that Matrix:
- has links to Israeli intelligence.
- sends a lot of sensitive data to matrix.org servers, even when Synapse is self-hosted.
Is this information accurate?
To be clear, I’m not saying Matrix is bad. I’m still using it. I just want to know more about it and who’s running the show, and hear other people’s opinions and arguments. Thanks for all the insightful comments.
I’m absolutely for free software, but this statement is very simplistic. Do “we” control software running on matrix.org, where most users have accounts? Or do “we” control what binaries of Element are being deployed to App Store or Play Store? Just because something has a free software licence, doesn’t mean it’s not important who the maintainers and major developers are. One of the important features of free software is transparency, which allow us as community to learn and discuss who and how develops the software. I’m not saying Matrix is bad. I’m still using it. I just want to know more about it and who’s running the show, and hear other peoples opinions and arguments.
Libre software doesn’t mean we control what other people do with their devices. Run it on your devices. The App Store and Google Play Store is not libre. Get it yourself. Apps should have reproducible builds. Everything there misses the point of my original comment.
Yeah, we will have much success converting people from WhatsApp and shit by telling them to run their own servers /s. If a non technical friend asks me what to use instead and I’ll advise them to use Matrix, you can be sure they’ll go to app store, install Element and register at matrix.org. So I do want to know if it’s operated by Mossad before I send my friends there.
If your friend’s hiding from Mossad, I think they’ll know to get it from F-Droid and turn on end-to-end encryption.