What is Nostr?
themroc /
npub1crq…srld
2025-01-21 13:58:10

themroc on Nostr: Do you need to establish a truly private and secure channel of communication with one ...

Do you need to establish a truly private and secure channel of communication with one or many people on your cellphone or computer, even when your communications might be under surveillance by isp providers and state actors? Something tells me that a lot of you might.

https://briarproject.org

Briar is a free text messaging application. But what makes it different, and why is it secure?
1- Briar is a peer-to-peer application. There is no central server, nothing is ever uploaded to "the cloud". Remember: in the end, the cloud always ends up being nothing but someone else's computer. When you send a message on Briar it goes directly from the addresser's device to the addressee's device, and if the addressee is offline the application will keep recursively trying to send the message until the addressee logs back in.
2- Briar does not necessarily need the internet. If the addresser and the addressee(s) are at the same real-life location and the internet is shut down, Briar can still work through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth provided they are close enough. Cough(protests)!Cough!
3- Briar is entirely pseudonymous. You only need to provide a username and a password. Neither you nor the application have to be aware of your interlocutor's phone numbers and identity.
4- On the internet, messages are bounced through the TOR network before reaching the addressee's device. This makes it EXTREMELY hard (nothing is ever truly impossible) for an internet provider or a state entity to trace the message and connect the addresser and the addressee's IP addresses.
5- All messages are also encrypted end-to-end, making them unreadable even if the packets were to be intercepted on the network.
6- Briar is entirely open-source, meaning that the code is available to be audited at any time by anyone who wants to audit it and look for security breaches.

Briar is available on Google Play, but you can also install it from F-droid if you don't want Google to know that you have it installed on your phone. You can also install it directly from Briar's website from the .apk package.

What can it do?
Briar can send text instant messages, and you can also organize group chats and forums. It works on Android, Linux, Windows and MacOS. It can also work as an RSS client, and you can share articles with your contacts that way.

What can't it do?
Calls, voice messages, videos, files. It's pretty bare bones, and objectively it won't replace your usual instant messenger.
It does not work on IOS, yet.

The briar project is also on Mastodon. Follow them and support them if you can.
https://fosstodon.org/@briar

#activism #journalism #internet #foss #briar #militancy #activisme #militancia #manifs #manifestations #manifestaciones #protests
Author Public Key
npub1crqfyvrqxr28gwt5kz9h0qdk2ld2jmm72vsndgp4yg9quqga5h9qr2srld