> "Google's Android runs on around 85% of all smartphones. This sends encrypted data “home” every day. So you can assume that Google can always link 85% of all smartphone IPs to the respective user!
Amazon is the online shopping market leader (in the West) and can provide the name and address for IPs.
Microsoft is the world market leader in operating systems and can provide further user data, for example the IP of your wifi.
And Cloudflare is “stuck” invisibly in front of many well-known websites and knows the surfing behavior for the IP!
More espionage or user data collection is almost impossible!"
This takes in the assumption one is using an IP as one person and that those companies would figure out your network with only knowing IP connection time and package size.
But many people can share the same IP and IPs change regularly. So I agree, that through the use of such Servers of these companies some surveillance of their side is possible. But considering all the connections that come and go from VPN and TOR network, the picture those companies get, would not get them significant information from signal chats.
I can support the point, that Threema does several technical things better than Signal. But I would argue, that when the switch from Whatsapp to Signal it is 1k privacy points, then from signal to threema accounts for additional 20 or 30 privacy points for protecting user data with their own datacenters and not having any unique identifiers used somewhere else.
But for a messenger to be useful, my contacts need to use it actually. There I like the model of signal better, where I can ask whatever contact to install signal and make a fast login to start chatting. It is known, that Signal does protect their user data and who messages with whom from courts and commercial companies.
They use opensource software. There is even an android client, that does not use any google framework integration within the Molly-foss app.
So I agree, that Threema has some parts that are superior compared to signal (and I have the app installed). But Privacy is not a one size fits all solution. So I rather use Signal with as many people as possible, since I trust Signal much more than I would Meta with the data of a messenger.
Privacywise I would put personally the following row:
SMS < Telegram < Whatsapp < iMessage < Signal < Threema < Simplex < Briar (top of private messaging)
Probably in the future some nostr messaging apps will come to that ladder somwhere at the top. But depends on the relays used and if there are public security reviews of the app.