[ajb]

That's addressed in their paper -they cover slightly different use cases.

- secure drop uses TOR. That's observable at a network level or via access to a users device. In many contexts being a TOR user is sufficient to out the leaker. Having a news app installed is less suspicious

- provides an easy way for a naive source to avoid exposing themselves on the initial contact. That's because their network traffic looks like every other user, and the app storage is deniable (takes up space even if not in use).

Coverdrop doesn't actually provide a way to send large files like secure drop. The paper suggests that the journalists would talk the source through how to safely use securedrop over coverdrop messaging.

So if you have enough opsec awareness and tech savvy to use securedrop safely it may be simpler to go straight there.