Snail mail actually has a lot of legal protections around it, at least in the US, up until they start looking at you specifically.
Which is really the ultimate point. If a state actor wants to see your comms, they will. The opsec required to stay completely anonymous while still using any kind of communication that's not word-of-mouth is not possible from a resources or, more importantly, a discipline standpoint for the vast majority of people.
You've only got to screw up once - using the same wifi cafe twice, forgetting to leave your cell phone home once, buying a burner phone from the same place twice, through luck of the draw you under up at a compromised Tor exit node, and the list goes on...they get a fresh and better chance every time you do something, while you have to perfect 100% of the time.
Whatsapp/etc are just placebos to make you feel better that your cell provider (probably) can't see your message during transit. I'd bet $20 that the feds can walk into Facebook with a warrant and get anything a person has sent over Whatsapp, fully decrypted, in a few minutes.
Snail mail actually has a lot of legal protections around it, at least in the US, up until they start looking at you specifically.
Which is really the ultimate point. If a state actor wants to see your comms, they will. The opsec required to stay completely anonymous while still using any kind of communication that's not word-of-mouth is not possible from a resources or, more importantly, a discipline standpoint for the vast majority of people.
You've only got to screw up once - using the same wifi cafe twice, forgetting to leave your cell phone home once, buying a burner phone from the same place twice, through luck of the draw you under up at a compromised Tor exit node, and the list goes on...they get a fresh and better chance every time you do something, while you have to perfect 100% of the time.
Whatsapp/etc are just placebos to make you feel better that your cell provider (probably) can't see your message during transit. I'd bet $20 that the feds can walk into Facebook with a warrant and get anything a person has sent over Whatsapp, fully decrypted, in a few minutes.
thank you.