this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
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Privacy
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Like this?
https://www.opentech.fund/security-safety-audits/briar-security-audit/
Or more a techie in-depth review?
I can attest: Briar requires no PII to create an account, operates over the Tor network (Your device becomes an onion service, basically, for chat). And, it integrates with Ripple, an emergency wipe button app (As does signal).
I like it, because you can keep a blog, create forums, group chats, and a few other really cool features. It sucks down your battery life, though (It's the notifs, and keeping an always-on server running).
i don't want to make you do my googling for me but if you have anything else just on-hand i'd love to read it. i can't trust the open tech fund because of its ties to the cia (see this paragraph by dessalines) but i'll definitely look into briar
I would disregard, at least, that line of thinking. I mean, Tor was heavily funded by the CIA... However, it's secure. Linux kernel is largely funded by the US government. However, it's secure.
What dessalines is doing is called "poisoning the well".
However, I'll find some more, as I recently was looking into this.
i don't agree with everything in that essay but the OTF-CIA connection gives me good reason not to read anything they say. not that everything they fund is bad but everything they say is untrustworthy.
maybe more importantly though, is briar android-only? no desktop app?
as a sidenote i just noticed i posted the dessalines essay twice in this thread so i'll say just for the record i still like signal. the security of the messaging protocol is, according to every cryptographer i've read on the topic, the gold standard in the field. it just makes me uncomfortable that a service, especially one centralized around amazon aws, is demanding my phone number. means they can tie my government name to my social graph