Video Conferencing and GDPR

Video Conferencing and GDPR: Choosing a Platform in Light of the CLOUD Act and End-to-End Encryption

A comparative legal analysis of major video conferencing platforms — Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Jitsi, and Proton Meet — from the standpoint of personal data protection, third-country transfers, and end-to-end encryption.

9 April 2026 · 21 min · NicFab
Illustration on WhatsApp metadata privacy

WhatsApp Metadata: Why the Real Privacy Risk Is Context

In the final months of 2025 and early 2026, two independent studies highlighted significant vulnerabilities in WhatsApp’s metadata management. The University of Vienna and SBA Research demonstrated the ability to enumerate 3.5 billion accounts through the contact discovery mechanism, while Tal Be’ery (Zengo) showed how cryptographic key IDs allow inference of operating system, device type, and approximate session age. Meta has begun implementing fixes, but the privacy implications remain significant. This article analyzes the nature of metadata, WhatsApp-specific risks, and presents open source alternatives based on federated protocols such as XMPP and Matrix.

5 January 2026 · 17 min · NicFab
Hush Line: The Open-Source Platform for Anonymous Whistleblowing

Hush Line: The Open-Source Platform for Anonymous Whistleblowing

Hush Line: The Open-Source Platform for Anonymous Whistleblowing October 2025: European Cybersecurity Month October 1 marked the start of European Cybersecurity Month, an annual awareness campaign that offers practical guidance to EU citizens on how to stay safe online. The campaign is coordinated by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and the European Commission, with support from EU member states and hundreds of partners across Europe and beyond. This year’s theme is particularly relevant: combating phishing and social engineering. Currently, 60% of cyberattacks start with phishing, an attempt to steal information or gain access to systems through deceptive messages or fraudulent websites. The campaign’s motto, “Cybersecurity is a Shared Responsibility,” emphasizes a fundamental concept: cybersecurity is a collective responsibility. ...

2 October 2025 · 10 min · NicFab
Web Key Directory (WKD): Setup Guide for Email Encryption

Web Key Directory (WKD): Setup Guide for Email Encryption

Web Key Directory: the technology that every email domain should adopt to ensure the authenticity and security of communications - TL;DR Why Encryption Is the Foundation of Digital Privacy Encryption is the technology that transforms readable information into incomprehensible code for anyone without the decryption key. It’s what protects banking transactions, government communications, and healthcare data. In the context of the European GDPR, strong encryption also enables the transfer of personal data outside the EU: when data is properly encrypted, individuals are no longer identifiable, simplifying regulatory compliance for international communications. Yet, paradoxically, the world’s most used communication technology – email – remains largely unencrypted, exposing billions of daily messages to potential interception. This article explores how the protocol Web Key Directory (WKD) finally solves this paradox, making email encryption simple and automatic: just as we now visit secure websites (HTTPS) without doing anything special, with WKD emails are also encrypted automatically without any user intervention. ...

27 September 2025 · 36 min · NicFab
Cryptgeon: A short guide to self-hosting

Cryptgeon: A short guide to self-hosting

An excellent service for secure data and file transfer

7 July 2024 · 5 min · NicFab
Restic: excellent resource for local and cloud backup

Restic: excellent resource for local and cloud backup

Backing up with powerful open-source resources

14 May 2024 · 6 min · NicFab
Global Encryption Day 2023

Global Encryption Day 2023

We at NicFab celebrate the Global Encryption Day 2023

21 October 2023 · 5 min · NicFab
Digital Markets Act (DMA) and interoperability: encryption and privacy at risk for messaging systems?

Digital Markets Act (DMA) and interoperability: encryption and privacy at risk for messaging systems?

The intent to qualify «gatekeepers» and ensure their platforms are interoperable with other systems could undermine privacy.

28 March 2022 · 5 min · NicFab
Privacy in email communication: we should use encryption by default

Privacy in email communication: we should use encryption by default

Awareness of the confidentiality of correspondence and securing the content of messages through encryption

1 March 2022 · 8 min · NicFab