FAQ

Here you can find most common questions asked about using Acter App.

How secure is Acter?

Acter offers end-to-end encryption, limited metadata collection, a decentralized model, and a low data mode for those with slow internet connections, ensuring secure and private access to organize change. Find more in our dedicated article about 🔐 Security.

However, security means different things to different individuals and organizing groups. It's important to note that no app can guarantee absolute security in every threat and scenario. Security threats can vary based on your own identity, regional factors, specific and unique organising circumstances. We strongly recommend that you evaluate your own security needs and consider any regional threats or scenarios that might affect your organization and activism. As we are aware that we at Acter do not possess all answers, we are always looking for improving the ways to optimise security.

How is Acter different from other platforms?

Overall in two areas; 1. security and 2. organizing capacity.

We believe that to claim civic space, we must also take back ownership of the digital space, dominated by big tech. We are working to transform digital organizing by providing a secure, decentralized, and mobile-first platform designed to empower people and organizers. Unlike profit-driven Big Tech, Acter prioritizes privacy and user control, offering a safe space for organizing without surveillance risks. Comparison chart to other messaging tools:

Furthermore, we acknowledge that you need more than just chat to organise your community. That's why in Acter you can create events, create resource libraries, create task lists and also organize in spaces. In messaging app such as WhatsApp, everything tends to disappear in chat.

Beyond just a tool, Acter fosters a supportive community through training, peer-to-peer learning, and a resilient network that activists can rely on in times of crisis.  By addressing the barriers to effective organizing and offering both a practical tool as well as direct movement support, Acter is cultivating a new era of activism—one that is secure, connected, and unstoppable.

Does Acter collect any user data?

That is broad question and can not be answered "no" by anything that wants to consistently route information between participants. Additionally for every user we also have their open sessions and keep some security relevant information alive (like the IP when it last access it from) during the session for them to figure out if they have been compromised. We do not actively collect any of that information though nor do we keep it after use. Further more by not requiring a user to give us an email address or phone number they can stay pseudonymous to the degree that we can't even connect them to a real life person. You can find more information about metadata here.

What kind of data is decentralized?

The underlying Matrix Protocol decentralizes on the level of "rooms". Users are bound to their servers (like in email or mastodon) and called a "home server" and data of any room is only shared and usually replicated to the server that have users in that room. Even if you had access to a particular server only all "connections" of users from that server would be know. As such there is no public view or graph or knowledge of all connections between all servers. In that sense both are decentralized in the entire system but centralized with their home server from the perspective of the individual user.

How is Acter funded?

While Acter is free to use forever we have a series of revenue streams to ensure our independence without compromising safety or data sovereignty. These are based on add-on services including:

• Roll-Out Support & Bespoke Trainings: Typically for larger intermediaries who deploy Acter in larger ecosystems.
• Self-Hosting Support: or organizations who would like to be self-hosted but needs help with setup.
• VPN Integrations: 
Providing VPN services directly through Acter.
• Fiscal Hosting: For organizations/movements needing fiscal hosting.

How often to you update the app?

At the moment, we update the app weekly for fixes and updates. If you have installed it Acter via any app store, it should automatically update, unless you deactivated auto-updating. However we recommend keeping it on because we are actively fixing bugs and other functionalities of the app.

What languages are currently available?

Currently we support English, German, Polish, French, Spanish, Arabic and Swahili! If you would like to support us with translating the app to your language, please contact us!