this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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Technology
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Signal was the first app of its kind that I actually found "real" people using it. Most other protocols its coworkers wanting to try out a new app or service. But signal i found a big chunk of my address book already had accounts. Sadly i doubt I'll ever find an app like this with so much non-techie acceptance.
I was successful in getting about 20 people now to use XMPP and that is the only way of contact between us now.
Once nobody used lemmy, now it's growing. We should all do our part to be on XMPP so others that want to make a full switch from centralized services can do so. We should use it and encourage others to do so as well.
See the difference is, you need to convince non-technical people to use xmpp. Most of my non-technical friends already have Signal, no convincing required.
Combined with the fact that Signal has an extremely reduced risk profile in terms of data stored by Signal and the hassle of either setting up my own xmpp server or trying to vet one that is trustworthy for the increased amount of data that is entrusted to server operators with xmpp compared to signal just makes it a non-starter unless I want to use it with other techies who are already game.
Sure I could also convince all my non-techie friends, but that's a lot of work for practically very little privacy benefit.
I think the difficult part is justifying the move from a "working service". My parents still use SMS as their main mode of communication. Going to something else "just like SMS" doesnt do much for them. Getting someone who is on Reddit to use a new Reddit that wont have a blackout means you're getting an upgrade.
Old people are hard to change, but you can always try. Still at very least we should motivate young people to use this decentralized alternatives and not trying to promote centralized ones like Signal.
Oh i finally hit the point of "being old" this year so I don't have young friends.
It might be a good idea to ask local schools to talk to every class about digital privacy, teacher might be into that. Telling them about examples, such as XMPP, might be very useful.
In theory yes that's a good idea but sadly most teachers wouldn't understand why we'd have the discussion and therefore not be super keen on randos wanting to talk to classes. And you need kids to actually want privacy when they post their entire lives online.