Is there a guarantee that the messenger will not hand over the correspondence to Comrade Major - to have your own messenger?

Question

Encryption

For some topics, the question is acute and relevant: but will this or that messenger give out my correspondence to the authorities upon request?

It seems that certain messengers have a better or worse reputation in this regard.

But I came up with the idea of ​​the solution described below, and I ask you to criticize / approve it:

- Set up your NextCloud server
- Use Nextcloud Talk ( https://nextcloud.com/talk/ ) on your server

Pros of this solution:
- Nobody, except for the participants in the correspondence will not be able to leak information, because no one has it. There is no one to send court orders, police demands, except as a participant in correspondence.
- NextCloud supports encryption. NextCloud can be kept on a virtual machine with disk encryption, so even if they come and take the server, the info will not be available.

Cons:
- Need to have a server. This is not suitable for some scenarios, but for the scenario, "I myself am not hiding, but I will not give my correspondence" - it is suitable. In addition, it is possible to have a server in a jurisdiction that is inconvenient for the authorities.
- It is necessary to be able to administer this server.
- Some additional inconvenience for users - you need to know and enter the address of this NextCloud server, keep a separate account on it. For the right purposes, this is a minor inconvenience.

Yes, they can try to hack the server, they can hack client devices, but this all applies equally to their NextCloud, and to any public messengers.

Perhaps there are other solutions besides NextCloud. Here the main idea is that I am the host of my correspondence and chats.

What are the pros and cons of this solution?

Answer 1

You will need not only to have your own messenger, but also so that no one knows about it . Otherwise, Comrade Major will simply ask you to show him when he arrives.
And even better - to be able to convincingly deny the existence of the messenger. That is, to have a ready answer when you are asked to provide access to the secret messenger and its history. Traditionally, this requires a second secret messenger with a fake story that can be shown.
The fact is that it is not easy to completely hide the fact of its existence. Somewhere on the cameras you will see how you are doing something on your smartphone. Comrade major will ask - what exactly? Your connections to the secret server will be visible, obviously. The neighbor will hand over, to whom you nevertheless boasted about the messenger. Will see that you created this question here. Some more clues. Finally, there will be questions. So you need to have answers. It is desirable that the fake is running on the same server for credibility. Of course, all participants must be responsible for safety rules. And you need to minimize the chances of bookmarks (trojans in your phone / computer).
Then it will be top security. But still not 100%. :)
For review: one , two .

Answer 2

Here the main idea is that I am the host of my correspondence and chats.

look for the opposite and end-to-end encrypted chats (e2ee).

Answer 3

Or they will simply come to you by your husband and force you to provide access to the server and all correspondence. Otherwise - the sky in a box and life in a strip. And this is much easier to do than to get stuck on the same telegram. In general, if there is a court order or evidence, any owner of the messenger will provide the necessary correspondence, no matter what anyone says

Answer 4

Article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is not in vain called the people's. Last year, every seventh sentence in Russia fell on anti-drug articles - there were more than 90,000 convicts. At the same time, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, about six thousand people died from all types of drugs in Russia during the same time.

And the point, in general, is not that people did not use encryption, it's just that if something happens in the physical world, it leaves quite a lot of traces.

Answer 5

so even if they come and take away the server, then infa will not be available.

In all such cases, one should not forget about the clearly existing weak link in this entire system. This link is you.
The most obvious problem for all IT people is that for some reason they believe that they can dodge and somehow find an opportunity to circumvent the law for something there. Or even not bypass, but create a system that, if they comply with the law, gives them an advantage. The misconception is that those from whom you are trying to protect yourself will comply with the law :)
Let's say you know well how to encrypt information. And they know well how to get a person to give out the information they need. And in the event of a fatal interest in you on the part of Comrade. major they will just apply this knowledge :)
To understand how famously illusions of this type scatter, I advise you to read reports about the events of the first days of the Belarusian protests - when the Belarusian cops kicked all the journalists in a row, regardless of whether it was RIA or Meduza.
Yes, own server hosting with a messenger significantly increases resistance to leaks at all other levels of them. major - almost to impenetrable. But only because "everyone else" is forced to remain in the legal field, and comrade. the major is free from such a duty :) if necessary, he will come and ask (especially if he knows for sure that you have it) and he will not get rid of fakes.