Re: [Tails-dev] Pidgin Protocols Safe?

On Thu, Oct 11, 2012, at 19:16, adrelanos wrote:
> I am concerned about the many [1] protocols Pidgin supports.
>
> The IRC protocol contains CTCP. A fancy feature, but bad for privacy.
> (You already aware and have a todo ticket...)

Given some Tor exits might listen in, most of these protocols are poison
from a privacy standpoint. Not only the user is obvious, but the contact
list can be seen in all its beauty. Sure, I can use OTR, but the one
recording at the exit already knows a lot of things. Offline messages
also mean data is stored on the server. Worse. For Yahoo I can certify
one will have all chats recorded as a feature.

On the other hand, how can one get people to renounce the old habits and
use something else? Yahoo can be accessed from MSN and vice–versa.
Google, with XMPP, is accessible from anywhere like fastmail.fm or
lavabit.com. But Facebook, even if it is XMPP is unreachable from
outside the network.