inquiry

[David Woolley]

On 10/01/2020 01:15, Blue Sky wrote:
> is it encrypted, and what country is it headquartered under - I heard that makes a difference in privacy, that some countries eavesdrop ??

The application isn't encrypted.  There is no point as it is open 
source, so anyone can see how it works.

It supports encryption using the same sort of encryption library as used 
by most open source software, OpenSSL.

Headquartered is not a meaningful term for a lot of open source 
software, and I think that is the case for Pidgin; it is a distributed 
development by an informal group of people.

I think OpenSSL itself is managed from outside the USA, so, whilst 
Pidgin packages from the USA may be subject to US export restrictions, I 
imagine ones have been built outside the USA.

Of course the services themselves tend to be based in the USA, so will 
probably refuse connections from people assumed to be associated with 
embargoed countries, and might run unencrypted for others.

Some countries probably still ban the import of encryption software for 
use by their general public.