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by godelski 1382 days ago
I think the interesting aspect to me is how so many on here complain about Signal in comparison to Matrix in the context of one-on-one or small group chats. How federization makes Matrix "more secure", but I think meta data is probably more important at this point. (Still excited to see Matrix grow, but this is clearly an issue that needs to be resolved)
1 comments
hammyhavoc 1382 days ago
Different tools for different tasks.

Is the security and privacy provided by Matrix fit-for-purpose for the EU gov, healthcare, military and emergency services? Yes.

Is it fit-for-purpose for those with nefarious intent, or those who might be the victim of an oppressive regime? "It depends".

If two people are talking on a single Matrix server that they control, it's absolutely whatever as far as metadata goes.

Element using Matrix protocol to make a Slack-like/Teams-like/WhatsApp-like? Absolutely fit-for-purpose. We've used it every day for over a year for business. I've even bridged in WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Discord et al to not need anything but Element as a comms app on any of my devices. I separate them by "Spaces".

In the real world, very few people need ever worry about metadata.

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Groxx 1382 days ago
Yeah, for Slack/Discord-like purposes, it's entirely reasonable I think. There are of course low-hanging fruit worth grabbing, but "tons of metadata all the time" is absolutely the normal expectation for a system like that. By being federated, Matrix is already noticeably better in most ways.

Anything better is achieved through massive effort and often novel research. Which is wonderful when it happens, but it's not reasonable to point to existing systems and say "how dare you [not do that thing nobody knows how to do yet / nobody has demonstrated scales to real-world use]".

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godelski 1382 days ago
> Different tools for different tasks.

Honestly this is how I see it, with the exact same split. Matrix = slack/teams and Signal = text messages/messenger/whatsapp. But I've seen quite a lot of passionate responses about how this comparison is naive because Matrix is a protocol and pointing to Element.

> In the real world, very few people need ever worry about metadata.

I disagree. Personally I'm not a fan of surveillance capitalism. Rather I think that people don't understand the importance of their data and how powerful it is.

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