Signal is not the place for top secret communications, but it might be the right choice for you – a cybersecurity expert on what to look for in a secure messaging app
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Considering the US government now owns Meta and thus WhatsApp, it’s an interesting case… why did they use signal?
The government does not "own" Meta. Words have meanings.
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Signal is the place for top secret communications, but not for government business (at least not when using a public instance - they could fork the project to keep decryptable records on gov servers where the official gov instance would run).
at least not when using a public instance - they could fork the project to keep decryptable records on gov servers where the official gov instance would run
All the people in the chat were high enough that the government for free provided them with secure rooms in their homes so everything would be done through government hardware and encryption programs.
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️ Sign up to secure fast chatmail servers or use classic e-mail serversYou don't have to use a "classic email server", or even link your account to your current email address at all. The default onboarding procedure actually creates a new anonymous account for you on the default chatmail server. Reading through the site, I can't actually even tell why someone would want to use their preexisting email address.
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You don't have to use a "classic email server", or even link your account to your current email address at all. The default onboarding procedure actually creates a new anonymous account for you on the default chatmail server. Reading through the site, I can't actually even tell why someone would want to use their preexisting email address.
Ah, okay. I think I heard about it at an earlier point where it was only using your current email.
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The government does not "own" Meta. Words have meanings.
Not for ideologues unfortunately.
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at least not when using a public instance - they could fork the project to keep decryptable records on gov servers where the official gov instance would run
All the people in the chat were high enough that the government for free provided them with secure rooms in their homes so everything would be done through government hardware and encryption programs.
Yes, ofc, using Signal was intentional to not keep any records/evidence.
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Signal is great, that's why I'm suspicious that this recent story is to not only target journalism, but also secure app communication. I wouldn't be surprised if it's used as an excuse to remove signal from the app stores.
Hopefully I'm just being too paranoid.
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How's signal compared to Element?
Also, is there a secure way to directly send messages to someone else's phone without the message having to be stored on a central server? As in they're only stored on the recipient device. Even if the server has no way of decrypting messages by default, just having the encrypted messages stored there is a liability because your encryption keys can easily get leaked by malware running on your device, phishing, etc.
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Signal is great, that's why I'm suspicious that this recent story is to not only target journalism, but also secure app communication. I wouldn't be surprised if it's used as an excuse to remove signal from the app stores.
Hopefully I'm just being too paranoid.
Immediately had that thought as well.
Don't blame the barn for not holding the horses when you leave the fucking door open.
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I personally use carrier pigeons with caesar cipher. I know I can't out tech google, so I will go medieval.
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How's signal compared to Element?
Also, is there a secure way to directly send messages to someone else's phone without the message having to be stored on a central server? As in they're only stored on the recipient device. Even if the server has no way of decrypting messages by default, just having the encrypted messages stored there is a liability because your encryption keys can easily get leaked by malware running on your device, phishing, etc.
element keeps a lot of metadata unencrypted. but it is federated, you can choose the server that has access to it (deny federation for the room or set up federation ACLs if important to keep it there), and because of the former it's harder to just shut down.
https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/660
signal doesn't, in theory they don't even know the recipient of your messages (but there's a twist in that part as I remember), but it is centralized around US servers. it is easier to shut down.
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Layer 8 security issue
error: problem between keyboard and chair
but nowadays maybe it works better with screen
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Signal is the place for top secret communications, but not for government business (at least not when using a public instance - they could fork the project to keep decryptable records on gov servers where the official gov instance would run).
Out of curiosity, what’s a better app for that use?
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Here are two reasons you might not want to use Signal: Your contacts, your settings, your entire Signal experience is tied to a Signal account managed by Signal. Metadata—who you’re talking to, when, and how often—can still be collected and analyzed. Question everything.
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Out of curiosity, what’s a better app for that use?
Anything that logs all the communication.
Govs have their own apps, email servers, various other web-based tools to exchange data, etc. Usually also gov hardware (ie can't use/access such gov apps on non-gov phones).
It's not "what's better" it's what is mandated/required/the law.
Much like when you get a regular average job you have to use whatever is permitted - company email is the usual, can't just deal with company data over your private email account where the company has no oversight. -
EVERYONE SHOULD DOWNLOAD SIGNAL for PHONE-NUMBER-based communication, tho. Proper RCS is not here yet (and won't be in a long while), so let's try to mobilize people to Signal.
DeltaChat is cooler for non-phone based communications, IMO, and decentralization makes it way sexier and worth this tradeoff.
xmpp is like if deltachat was good
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Signal is great, that's why I'm suspicious that this recent story is to not only target journalism, but also secure app communication. I wouldn't be surprised if it's used as an excuse to remove signal from the app stores.
Hopefully I'm just being too paranoid.
insanely paranoid if you think this will get it removed from app stores good grief
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insanely paranoid if you think this will get it removed from app stores good grief
Talk to Tiktok
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Here are two reasons you might not want to use Signal: Your contacts, your settings, your entire Signal experience is tied to a Signal account managed by Signal. Metadata—who you’re talking to, when, and how often—can still be collected and analyzed. Question everything.
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Signal is great, that's why I'm suspicious that this recent story is to not only target journalism, but also secure app communication. I wouldn't be surprised if it's used as an excuse to remove signal from the app stores.
Hopefully I'm just being too paranoid.
I don’t think that’s the case, I just think it is old people not know how to use technology.
Additionally, all these people in power are using signal, how is that not a loud endorsement that everyone should be on it.
Sadly, my contact list remains mostly on WhatsApp and Facebook messenger only.
