• tym@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      The irony of you posting this on lemmy, which won’t allow posting from a VPN or masked email addresses is not lost on me.

      The amount of hoops I had to jump through to make this comment and maintain some semblance of privacy is infuriating but at least it’s not reddit I guess?

      But do go on about your security standards…

      Edit: BTW, you can set signal to hide your number completely. Combined with FOSS-based encryption keys on-device makes signal the only choice for trying to maintain freedom of expression globally.

      Nothing will protect anyone from messaging with a snitch who knows how to screenshot though. Food for thought… get to know your neighbors now.

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        It doesn’t matter if you hide the number; at some point they deanonymized you when you signed up.

        Want to be a dick about “hoops”? Get a number that isn’t traceable. It can be done, but it’s tough. I doubt its possible in the countries that really need anonymity of association.

  • perestroika@lemm.ee
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    17 hours ago

    I will use the opportunity to remind that Signal is operated by a non-profit in the jurisdiction called “the US”. This could have implications.

    A somewhat more anarchist option might be TOX. There is no single client, TOX is a protocol, you can choose from half a dozen clients. I personally use qTox.

    Upside: no phone number required. No questions asked.

    Downside: no servers to store and forward messages. You can talk if both parties are online.

  • Steven Tree Baxter@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Compare with Zangi Private Messenger. Yes, every country who has jurisdiction has access. Just ask yourself, which gov do I trust more with my private chats?

  • gamer@lemm.ee
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    12 hours ago

    Anyone know why the Signal app isn’t available on F-Droid? Isn’t it supposed to be open source?

    • notarobot@lemm.ee
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      10 hours ago

      I think it’s by request. the fdroid team build every single app in their repos which means that they are not always fully up to date, so signal argues that whenever they need to push a security release people on froid would take forever to update.

      I think I’ve had this issue with simplex. I’ve had to wait over 2 weeks for an update. That’s why I’m using obtanium for it instead

  • MochiGoesMeow@lemmy.zip
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    10 hours ago

    I got tired of asking my family to download yet another app. Went iPhone at this point.

    • e$tGyr#J2pqM8v@feddit.nl
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      8 hours ago

      How many apps did you ask them to download?

      Personally, I only asked for this one, and everyone who is of importance to me chose to do it.

    • hackitfast@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      I don’t think that the founders are bad people. If you look at their history of work, they have done enormous amounts of work in the computer security sector. The founder, however, did run a cloud based WPA cracking service.

      Meredith Whitaker, who is the president, used to work at Google doing research for “issues related to net neutrality measurement, privacy, security, and the social consequences of artificial intelligence”.

      In 2018 she then staged walkouts at Google over concerns of sexual misconduct and citizen surveillance.

      The people on Signal’s board seem to be trustworthy people with a pretty airtight background. You have to worry more about the mobile operating system compromising you than do you about Signal.

    • aidan@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Does it really matter who made it if you can see the source code? You don’t have to trust them.

      • ballgoat@lemmy.zip
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        7 hours ago

        That’s kind of a core tenet of libre/open software, innit? Independently verifiable software that you can change at your pleasure.

          • ballgoat@lemmy.zip
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            7 hours ago

            Yes, you can use their exact build environment straight from GitHub. You can also use Molly.im which is another app that i think is a fork? Im still investigating it.

  • falynns@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Humans are too stupid to switch from convenience to slightly less convenience even if they get privacy for free. Any amount of discomfort is too much and changing an app is basically death.

    • Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub
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      19 hours ago

      They see no value in it. They don’t see that privacy is proactive measure that can protect you.

      On Facebook, especially in my family, accounts get lost and hacked. One fine day, it might be someone with more influence in the family who’s attacker might make off with stolen bank information or passwords.

      but “that’ll never happen”, right?

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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    21 hours ago

    I would like nothing more, but so few of my contact group are willing to switch away… despite all of Meta’s bullshit. I resent being made to use it whilst their AI/ads encroach further and further.

  • maxo@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    I will switch to signal when I can avoid installing stuff on bunch of my devices. Until web version is available, sorry it hard for me to switch and for me to convince other people to switch.

  • Jaberw0cky@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    My wishlist is an app which is not linked to a phone number, is multi platform and has a web app. It should be none US and open source. That isn’t too many requirements and yet nothing seems to full fit the bill? Anyway good luck trying to get school parent’s groups to use something other than WhatsApp.

  • Armand1@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The exit plan from WhatsApp is quite simple. Start by installing Signal and setting it up – it takes only a couple of minutes. Then, resume any WhatsApp conversations on Signal if that person is already a Signal user. If they are not, then switch to regular text messaging and gently suggest to that person to switch over to Signal.

    Sadly for me, this doesn’t really work for some relatives as

    • They live abroad and the cost of sending text messages abroad is not insignificant
    • Some are so tech un-savvy that even installing a new app by themselves is too much.

    All I can do for those relatives is to leave WhatsApp installed but take away basically every permission I can, including running in the background.

    • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      They live abroad and the cost of sending text messages abroad is not insignificant

      Signal is free just like whats app. For text, calls, and video. So that isn’t a problem.

      I too have friends and family in different countries, one of which is crazy about whatsapp. I simply tell them this is how we are going to do things now, and walk them through it. It is not hard. If they can’t do it, well then we don’t need to communicate this way. Whatsapp is not an option. It is that simple.

      • Nima@leminal.space
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        1 day ago

        Signal is not capable of SMS and quite a lot of people still use it.

        yes, i know SMS isn’t secure at all. but if the option is “keep in touch with close family” or “don’t keep in touch” they will probably choose the former if they want to keep that.

        • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          I would rather SMS than use WhatsApp. But even then if my family is far away, why am texting them at all very often? With the time zone differences I’ll call or email, or nothing. It’s weird how people got along just fine with letters that took weeks and suddenly we now need instant communication for some reason?

          • Nima@leminal.space
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            1 day ago

            we used to be fine with candles and stinky lanterns filled with perfectly good kerosene too. who tf needs electricity? 🤨

            on the topic of family connection, I can’t speak to your family experience. only my own. and our family group chat is pretty damn active.

            • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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              1 day ago

              Did you get everyone to settle on the same thing, like Signal? We are spread out over about 8 countries, and with all the different phone numbers and plans, we use various methods, with several of us on Signal. Some on whatsapp, some on messenger. So we are not coordinated enough for a group chat. Which is fine, I dont really need to know everything all the time, we catch up when can, or get into small video chats occasionally. Luckily we do tend to physically see each other somewhat frequently.

              • Nima@leminal.space
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                1 day ago

                no we are all on different platforms. half are on android and half are on apple which is irritating. so sadly the sms is our best tool to hit everyone at the same time with any urgency.

                • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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                  11 hours ago

                  sms is not even an option for us; international texting costs a lot. Some people don’t even use a phone, they rely on internet connected devices only. Trying to coordinate all of this gets complicated fast.

  • Humanius@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    After Trump was elected and inaugurated, Signal has finally been gaining some steam here in the Netherlands.

    It’s still an American company, so it’s not ideal. But it’s still significantly better better than letting a tech giant like Facebook have control over the most commonly used chat app.

    WhatsApp needs to go and Signal is the most likely way in which we can achieve that. We can worry about the American elephant in the room later.

      • Humanius@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        But being based in the United States it is still subject to American laws, and that comes with the risk of potential American spying and embargoes. Software from any American entity (be it coorporation or non-profit) comes with that risk.

    • viking@piefed.ca
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      2 days ago

      There is threema, a Swiss messenger that gained some popularity earlier since they had end to end encryption before whatsapp.

      Unfortunately the source code is not open (even though they do get annual audits with public reports), and the client costs 3 EUR or something (once).

      • philpo@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        And Switzerlands records in terms of privacy sadly is far worse than most people think - even with the last attack being repelled.

        Matrix (preferably on a non-matrix.org instance) currently is the preferable non US and privacy friendly way.

      • Humanius@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Yeah, but Threema has basically no momentum behind it at all at this point.
        I’m putting my social capital behind the option that currently stands the most chance of beating out Whatsapp

          • Humanius@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Then by all means keep that momentum going.
            I’m just looking at this from a Dutch perspective, where Signal is seeing by far the most growth.

            • rhabarba@feddit.org
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              2 days ago

              You can help making it stronger. That’s what I did in Germany: if people want to contact me, I usually give them my Threema ID first, everything else comes later.

    • Kualdir@piefed.social
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      2 days ago

      Sadly many still don’t want to switch. My most active chats are in signal now but the large majority of chats are still on whatsapp

      • Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub
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        19 hours ago

        I believe in it,… for now.

        I moved my family group to xmpp to have more personal control over our chats. Signal seems benevolent, but I’ve seen this play out before. Will it stay that way? We treat online forums with the idea that federstion works to stop enshittificstion. I believe XMPP is a good model for federating secure chatrooms for the same reason: People should control the voices of the people, not companies.

        • buttnugget@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          I am so excited to see people embracing xmpp! I’ve been using it since 2010 and I was really bummed when my company got swallowed up by a huge conglomerate and we were forced to use their shitty proprietary one.

    • psud@aussie.zone
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      22 hours ago

      I use it mostly for family chats, I got the extended family to use it rather than Facebook Messenger

      What makes you not trust signal as against WhatsApp?