- cross-posted to:
- opensource
- privacy
- cross-posted to:
- opensource
- privacy
We as a community must stop recommending Signal. For far too long we have blindly followed this app without a second thought. It has created a cult of followers, when there are much better apps out there for us to use.
https://archive.is/Lhe24 archive for the essay
This essay was posted to r/Privacy and subsequently removed and censored for literally No Reason. This is honestly really scary: https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/wj5svi/signal_messenger_revealed_to_have_cia_ties_funded/ https://archive.ph/FZr1d
I am seriously hoping we can have a discussion about this on lemmy. @TheAnonymouseJoker , I know you from r/PrivateLife, and thought you’d be the one to go to about this. Thanks for being open in the past and not bowing to the inner circle of reddit cringelords.
I also am preparing an essay of my own about a complicit honeypot-ish web going on between Signal, Skiff, r/Privacy, r/PrivacyGuides, etc. They have a crazy little cabal that is very creepy. Any materials are welcome. Every time i turn over a stone i find two more. More to come.
Ok, so what is better with other apps and why shouldn’t one recommend signal over the apps people use (say Whatsapp, telegram)
OP linked a whole essay about the second part of your question.
An alternative would be matrix, which can be used with the elements app on your phone.
Matrix, where it’s ambiguous if you’re sending encrypted or unencrypted messages, disappearing and view once messages aren’t really a thing, and the server logs all metatata. Much better than signal.
To be fair, all of that stuff can be controlled by the server host. Too bad you have to be the server host to be sure.
Doesn’t matrix massively inncrease the number of entities you have to trust with the data and so more places it could be attacked? I. E. Kind of like RAID0 your places for something to go wrong in the message routing and storage.
Matrix seems way more like a Discord alternative where you are doing public group chats vs like xmpp or signal point to point sms sort of chat.
I have no idea about the technical details tbh, I just use it for one specific thing where people are involved who boycott signal and say it’s safer.
And also fluffychat has a much better ui in my opinion
Sorry, I only clicked the archive link but that’s the broken one 😂
Even if Signal might be better for those people’s current threat model, people’s habits are hard to change. Good luck getting them onto a better decentralized protocol later. Most people will not take the time to understand the importance of decentralization and think we are just making their lives difficult. I regret getting people onto Signal mainly for this reason.
It’s up to you, but you gotta ask yourself. Do you want to use a messaging app that forces Google, phone numbers, and has ties to the CIA? No thanks! Also, anyone with access to your text messages can take over your Signal account. Including the Feds ofc
How does it force google? It’s about to implement usernames. Didn’t know the CIA stuff. Nah, they can’t they also need to have access to my unlocked phone in order to transfer messages.