this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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Why is this being downvoted?
I think some people get lost and don't realize that this is a privacy-centric community.
The mere potential for identifier leaking is 100% anti-privacy.
Privacy aside, but just for a second - if we don't hold ourselves to a higher standard, our standard will just be lower. That's all that will happen.
We each make a choice according to our level of comfort in concern to privacy, or lack thereof, in how we choose to conduct ourselves afforded by the solutions we utilize and the rituals we observe.
Remember, privacy can never be enforced or guaranteed, only encouraged. Best practices, as available, as it were.
Agree, but I wasn't talking about privacy.
I apologize, you were very clear about being outside of privacy. Forgive me, I'm having trouble separating its context in this regard.
I liken level of standard similar to personal reputation. At the end of the day, that's all we have—we accept what we are willing to live with.
No worries, it seems like you understand perfectly - I was just reflecting on the downvotes above.
I like it here because the people often seem real, and the voting generally seems (to me, anyway) to follow more of a meritocratic pattern than whatever the fuck has been going on at the other place for the last ten or more years.
We should probably try to really understand these differences so we might get better at designing communities that are actually sustainable. Maybe I am just getting old - I'm tired of starting over, I'm tired of watching great communities self-destruct.
Also, Signal's centralization, sussy shenanigans with mobilecoin and not updating their server app repo for over a year (latter they ceased afterwards iirc but still very detrimental to trust, especially since git reflog manipulation is ridiculously easy) and dependence on proprietary libraries and network services (in case of libraries there are thankfully at least a couple forks without such dependencies). Plus most of their servers that aren't necessarily CDN being located in glowieland...
The huge red flag to me is that Signal is no longer decried as the devil of western intelligence anymore.
Frank Figliuzzi (former FBI cointel) and Chuck Rosenberg (former DEA admin) used to rail on about all of the dangers posed by Signal, but I haven't heard an unkind word in over a couple years now.
French authorities consider it a "terrorist app". Louis Rossmann made a video about it. It was in some court case but at this point I don't remember whether it was a local court or higher and frankly don't care enough to check.
Likely because while simplex looks great and is very promising, it doesn't add much to the conversation here. Signal is primarily a replacement for SMS/MMS, this means people generally would want their contacts readily available and discoverable to minimize the friction of securely messaging friends/family. Additionally it's dangerous to be recommending a service that hasn't been audited nor proven itself secure over time.
Edit: provided link to audit
awesome! I obviously haven't been keeping up. thanks!