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Send messages, not metadata.
Or rather, it was based in the Land Down Under until last month.
“It has been quite a difficult and arduous process,” STF President Alexander Linton told me.
This technology refers to the process of scrambling the content of online communications to prevent unwanted access.
The US and some countries in Asia.
In 2021, the so-calledIdentify and Disrupt Actextended Australian law enforcement powers even further.
Linton also mentions the more recente-Safety Commissioneras another reason for concern.
The regulatory body introduces new industry codes that could clash with Session’s business model.
The new e-safety codes would require service providers to collect identifying information from end users.
Ultimately, Switzerland was a natural fit.
The provider behind the popular paid andfree VPNandsecure emailservices, Proton was born here.
Also,Threema, another encrypted messaging app, was developed in the European country back in 2012.
This is because Switzerland boasts very strong data protection laws.
TheSwiss Federal Constitution, for example, explicitly establishes a constitutional right to privacy.
Most importantly, in 2021, bothProtonandThreemaeven won a court case for not being classified as telecommunications service providers.
“Encryption only protects the contents of your communications.
Metadata refers to all the details around the data you shared that it isn’t the content.
The team behind Session wanted to develop a fully open-sourced app focused on protecting these details.
“Which usually means not collecting or creating that metadata in the first place,” said Linton.
Last year, Signal also began beta testing the idea ofditching phone numbersin the name of privacy.
The ex-Australian app goes even further as it also protects your IP.
This infrastructure is similar to the one that the secureTor browseralso employs.
