Harmful endorsement: Signal

Why it’s harmful:

site Signal endorsement site’s position & mission are inconsistent endorsement contains misinfo or withholds pitfalls
de-Google-ify no (but suggests another poor choice: Telegram) no n/a w.r.t Signal, but Telegram imposes mobile phone svc.
Frama no no n/a
PRISM-Break yes yes site withholds OWS Signal wrongdoing
PTIO yes yes PTIO cautions about requiring ph#, but neglects to say non-mobile phone users are excluded and withholds most of OWS’s wrongdoing & pitfalls. PTIO leads users to a page that hides the existence of an APK download.
Security Checklist yes yes site withholds OWS Signal wrongdoing
Surveillance Self-Defense yes yes misinfo: “Signal is a free and open source software” (proof) site withholds OWS Signal wrongdoing but ironically admits to the harm of mobile phones.
Stallman no no n/a
Switching Software yes yes, if you consider Signal an unethical alternative site withholds OWS Signal wrongdoing
ThinkPrivacy yes yes, users give up control with Signal as a result of OWS’s network protectionism & Signal’s use of Google reCAPTCHA. OWS also pushes users into a mass surveillance trap (Google Playstore) site withholds OWS Signal wrongdoing.

Harmful endorsement: Keybase

Why it’s harmful: article

(May 2020 update: Zoom acquired Keybase)

site endorsement site’s position & mission are inconsistent endorsement contains misinfo or withholds pitfalls
de-Google-ify no no n/a
Frama no no n/a
PRISM-Break no no n/a
PTIO yes yes the warning is esoteric & insignificant compared to all the serious issues that PTIO has actually been told of and recklessly fails to warn users about.
Security Checklist no no n/a
Surveillance Self-Defense yes yes site withholds Keybase wrongdoing, and sets users up for leaky and lost communications.
Stallman no no n/a
Switching Software no no n/a
ThinkPrivacy yes yes, users give up control with Keybase, which takes copious liberties once it’s installed on your system. And if you don’t install the server messages to you will be black-holed. This is the opposite of giving the user control over their data. site withholds Keybase’s most significant wrongdoing and merely flags the Zoom acquisition

(part 1: web search engines (DDG & Qwant))

(part 3: s/w repositories (Github & Gitlab))

  • AgreeableLandscape
    2·
    5 years ago

    Keybase was acquired by Zoom, so any remaining privacy credibility it did have just zoomed away.

    • dirtfindrOP
      2·
      5 years ago

      Indeed. Even before the acquisition Keybase was quite horrifying. The acquisition is almost insignificant in comparison.

      I’m actually happy about the acquisition because it triggered the public to finally realize the garbage that it is. It’s like the universe has done some convenient garbage collection for us.