Instant messaging
Instant messaging, or IM, is a popular and now ubiquitous medium for sending messages to other persons on the Internet.
General overview
Instant messaging is a technology through which a person can send short text messages to others on the same computer or over a computer network. The recipients receive the message instantly and can send a reply right away or at a more convenient time. IM is therefore a powerful middle ground between e-mail and real-time chat systems.
With most IM networks, users connect to a centralized IM server with an instant-messaging client. They sign in with a login id and a password, and the network sends the online status of everyone on the user's contact list and alerts others of the user's online status. Once connected, the user may send messages to others on the same IM network via the centralized server.
There are several major IM networks in use today: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Google HangOuts, ICQ, Jabber, Skype, Yahoo! Messenger
Most IM networks are incompatible with others. Although AIM and ICQ users can see each others' status and send messages to each other, interoperability is otherwise non-existent. Proprietary networks have a vested interest in keeping their networks closed. This led to the rise of multi-network clients, such as Pidgin and Trillian. These clients allow users to connect to more than one IM network at once instead of running each official client separately. A user must still register with and sign in to each individual IM network, but can message his friends on various networks using a common interface, which may or may not have more features (such as spell checking) than the official clients.
Many IM clients and networks also presently include more advanced functions, like graphical emoticons integrated in the text, offline messages that are held by the server until the recipient signs in, file transfers, and video and voice chat.
Instant messaging in the boylove community
Especially after the decline of IRC in the community, instant messaging has been a popular way for boylovers to keep in touch with one another. IM chats take on the character of casual, private conversations. IMs can be a comfortable way to share personal details and form friendships outside of public forums like Internet message boards. Many networks allow group chats where more than two people can talk together at the same time.
Security
Instant messengers enable real-time communication with other Internet users, the main privacy danger to users comes from the owners of the IM server/network owner, instant messaging companies like Kik, SnapChat and Skype they all scan the files you send to detect child porn and they could be forced to scan for anything else they want, another privacy danger is that the IM networks know who is talking to whom, they log IPs and ask for a phone number or email address for registration, all of this is kept on file and they have been known to be used to track down users.
The instant messengers listed below do a best effort to keep your online activities anonymous and private but you should combine them with common sense and other privacy technologies such as VPNs, Tor and encryption so that if one safety measure fails you have a second back up safety measure that will stop an attacker and remember that there are things that an IM can not protect you from, yourself, you never know who is behind the keyboard at the other end, they could send you a virus or their computer could fall in the wrong hands one day and your private chat be visible to a third party if that were to happen you will be happy during that conversation your IP was hidden or the message was set to self-destruct.
One such example of user privacy compromised despite using a very secure instant messenger was when the FBI managed to deanonymize a child abuser using the encrypted Teleguard IM by forcing this Swiss company to hand over the push alert code sent to his account, push alerts are the pop-up notifications announcing new instant messages updates, after that the FBI asked Google to hand over a list of email addresses linked to that code. [1] Another user, a suspected Catalan independence activist was traced using secure instant messenger Wire after Spanish police using a mutual legal assistance treaty requested this Swiss messaging company the registration email address the activist had used to open the IM account followed by a subpoena to the e-mail company on file demanding the login IP address. [2]
References
- ↑ The FBI’s new tactic: Catching suspects with push alerts: https://web.archive.org/web/20240301075856/http://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/29/push-notification-surveillance-fbi/
- ↑ Encrypted services Apple, Proton and Wire helped Spanish police identify activist: https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/08/encrypted-services-apple-proton-and-wire-helped-spanish-police-identify-activist/
External links
- Simplex IM - Secure messenger that does not require phone number or ID
- Teleguard - Swiss based messenger that does nor require a phone number
- Briar IM - Censorship-resistant peer-to-peer messaging that bypasses centralized servers
