I think it would be nice to have a consumer focused document covering:
Product risks.
Roadmap of where we want to go.
Feature implementation matrix of where we want to go.
I would also like to know the challenges to what we want (feasibility? pros/cons?)
In addition:
I don't want to depend on servers.I don't want the risk of self hosting a server.
I don't want a server that can be blocked.
I don't want to trust client/server code.
I don't want people/admins to know who I am talking to.
I don't want people/admins to know where I'm talking from.
I don't want admins to know about groups, the subject, or the members.
I don't want to depend on an organization that can be controlled by government or ideology.
I don't want to depend on anything that can be shutdown.
Status and Session seem to be the next evolution (though still not perfect).
How much of the ad targeting is data collected from only Safari versus other apps (including Apple Apps and non-Apple)?
If it is just Safari, then the ad targeting is similar to other ad-enabled browsers (simply stop using Safari). However, if Apple is using data from maps, messages, photos, device scanning, etc, then that is much, much, much worse.
I don't use it because it's Android only, which greatly limits communications.
Berty.tech might become an alternative to some of Briar's features.
Session/Status don't need a central server either (decentralized and distributed).
The question I have is how much is something decentralized/distributed and how peer discovery works. Ideally everyone would be a client/server (like bittorrent and I2P).
I like Session because it is anonymous (onion relay), decentralized, doesn't require a phone number, and I can have multiple accounts. But I still have to dependend on other people's generous infrastructure.
With Signal, you have to trust the server software (and hope it doesn't get hacked) to not collect a social graph, and the server address can be blocked/censored. Allowed one account per phone number. It's nice making communication easy, therefore will prevail as being the most popular...until a government or hacker takes down the service.
Session concerns/wishes:
Dependency on nodes to relay communication. I wish for independence.
Australia, but Signal USA can be just the same. Who knows what governments will force organizations to do (or prevent them from being monetized).
Wish I could have disposable aliases to handout (similar to email alias).
Matrix and XMPP still require a server, and trust. Gajim/XMPP seemed clunky to me. Tox over Tor is fast, simple, nice....but handling offline messages is a problem.
What I really want are these communication apps to be both client/server. Similar to torrenting/DHT and I2P. No need to administer a server, or for your server to become a dependency, or need to have a domain so all your contacts can reach the server.
Status might be better. Seems to offer everything Session has, but P2P. Not sure where DApps and crypto wallets is going though....seems like a lot of messengers are headed in that direction.
I hope they eventually become multi-platform, and good support.