Ask HN: How do we know Signal or Telegram don't store our data on their servers?

Post by cmroanirgo » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 8:07 PM UTC

Kuraj wrote: post #53

faitswulff wrote: post #22

Signal’s claim to fame here is that they were subpoenaed in 2016 and could only supply account creation and last connection times: > The American Civil Liberties Union announced Tuesday that Open Whisper Systems (OWS), the company behind popular encrypted messaging app Signal, was subpoenaed earlier this year by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia to hand over a slew of information—"subscriber na…

Is it possible that they could in fact produce this data but were prevented from publicly saying so due to a gag order? I'm asking specifically because I remember Private Internet Access, a VPN provider, also being tested in court in the past [1], and because of this I've chosen to trust them despite them falling under Five Eyes jurisdiction. [1] https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-...

Post by godelmachine » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 8:18 PM UTC

geraltofrivia wrote: post #76

dave_sullivan wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did you switch to?

I’ve been using Mullvad since the past few years and I’ve no complaints. The fact that the recent Mozilla VPN is based on Mullvad makes me more confident in my decision.

Post by godelmachine » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 8:19 PM UTC

Kuraj wrote: post #53

faitswulff wrote: post #22

Signal’s claim to fame here is that they were subpoenaed in 2016 and could only supply account creation and last connection times: > The American Civil Liberties Union announced Tuesday that Open Whisper Systems (OWS), the company behind popular encrypted messaging app Signal, was subpoenaed earlier this year by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia to hand over a slew of information—"subscriber na…

Is it possible that they could in fact produce this data but were prevented from publicly saying so due to a gag order? I'm asking specifically because I remember Private Internet Access, a VPN provider, also being tested in court in the past [1], and because of this I've chosen to trust them despite them falling under Five Eyes jurisdiction. [1] https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-...

Post by dewey » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 8:23 PM UTC

godelmachine wrote: post #105

Kuraj wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible that they could in fact produce this data but were prevented from publicly saying so due to a gag order? I'm asking specifically because I remember Private Internet Access, a VPN provider, also being tested in court in the past [1], and because of this I've chosen to trust them despite them falling under Five Eyes jurisdiction. [1] https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-...

That’s one point in favor of PIA. I chose NordVPN coz we can access from any server in the world and they have offered me good discount

Post by saladgnu054 » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 8:25 PM UTC

juniperplant wrote: post #52

7v3x3n3sem9vv wrote: post #33

It's important to note that Telegram does store all your data by default as they do not enable E2EE for everything like Signal does. So if you're under the assumption that they don't, this is incorrect. Telegram, for all intents and purposes, is about as secure as using Facebook. The best you can do with Telegram is hope they don't sell out or get compromised at some point in the future, because all your private comm…

> Everything is end-to-end encrypted by default, so you know nobody is collecting your data. I think it's wise to remember that what happens on the other "end" is outside of your control. If the other person in the conversation stores chat backups unencrypted you're still at risk, and there's not much you can do about it.