[tuxxy]

This. That entire period should be examined as a lapse in judgement, not a time when things were better.

Because of our state-of-the-art security, we're now able to do more things online in less secure environments. A secure, distributed internet is normal. One that is insecure by design is not.

[m-p-3]

Even HTTPS was costly in terms of resources back then, thankfully hardware acceleration and better algorithms came and there are no valid reasons anymore not to encrypt communications now.

[xster]

They brought it up themselves too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xozVBAWo8XI (not dubbed unfortunately) where their users would accuse them of being antiquated for not doing any server sync'ed messages but it's all by intent.

[OrgNet]

proper security has always been "state-of-the-art"

[dmix]

Even burner phones were a technically state-of-the-art which was a story which underpinned an entire season of a TV show's plotline (and title).

Cellphones became so cheap and widely available you could buy and throw them away efficiently to not get easily tapped and still make enough money, even as a low level drug dealer living in low income neighbourhoods. That wouldn't have been possible years prior.

[OrgNet]

Burner phones are good for anonymity (if you buy them anonymously), but I don't think that they add any security