this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
586 points (98.5% liked)

Privacy

32142 readers
1365 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

"Signal is being blocked in Venezuela and Russia. The app is a popular choice for encrypted messaging and people trying to avoid government censorship, and the blocks appear to be part of a crackdown on internal dissent in both countries..."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Source: trust me bro.

Seriously tho, that's been most of the defense of signal advocates, with zero backup other than signal's own claims. Signal is not self-hostable, and all the data lives on a centralized, US-domiciled server, subject to NSL requests (the US issues ~ 60 of them per day).

Unfortunately you can't verify what their server stores, nor the metadata that they are legally required to share with the US government (which includes phone numbers, and your name and address).

BTW if signal is secure, can you give us your phone number, so we can use it with you?

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 months ago

Signal is end to end encrypted. Everything related to encryption happens inside the app. It doesn't matter if the server is in mainland China it would still be secure. However, that doesn't mean it is anonymous. Signal is pretty bad from that perspective.

[–] ivn@jlai.lu -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You don't need the phone number to contact someone with Signal.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Wrong, you need a phone number to create a signal account.

[–] ivn@jlai.lu -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, to create an account, but not to contact someone. You have an habit of being off the mark.

Also there is a difference between giving your phone number to some service and giving it to some random on the internet.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

They must've added that recently then, but still doesn't get around the fact that they're required, which means signal (and likely the US government) knows exactly who you talk to and when.