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Signal and Giphy

whispersystems.org

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Re: Signal and Giphy

#71

Post by aluhut »

verroq wrote: post #65
aluhut wrote: post #60

It makes me sad so see that they waste time on decoration like gif search but they don't have a client I can use on my PC for example.

I honestly don't know if this comment is serious. My girlfriend won't use Signal because it doesn't let her send stickers. This is only a first step in the right direction.

And when she has them, it'll be something different ridiculous. Seriously, this is what whatsapp is for. I don't see why we have to dump down EVERYTHING for those people.

From my own experience the biggest reason is that "my friends are elsewhere". I force my gf to use signal, her mother started to use it too because of that and because she wants to have PC problems solved by me. Same goes for other people that want to interact with me through an communication app like Signal. Other just have to call or write an SMS. Those functions are still there.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#72

Post by morsch »

knz wrote: post #66
Vinnl wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not perfect, but: https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop/

I've given up on Signal (for now at least). Yes the encryption and privacy is great but without a decent desktop client it's hard to get others in my network to switch to it. Two things bothered me about the desktop application - it runs as a Chrome application rather than in a tab (not sure if there is a technical reason for this?). If I care enough out privacy to run Signal then I probably don't want to broadcast t…

There is a desktop client. It's packaged as a Chrome app. Some people downthread think a "decent" desktop app must be (more) standalone. You seem to think a "decent" desktop app should live inside a browser tab. It's hard to make everybody happy. People need to stop claiming there is no desktop app just because the very clearly existing one does not fulfill their own arbitrary set of criteria.

I don't know if you can sign out within Signal desktop (I assume you can, but I can't verify at the moment); you can sign out existing Signal sessions from within the mobile app.

The phone number is Signal's account identifier. You don't see somebody else's phone number because you've got them on Signal, you're seeing them on Signal because you've got their phone number. So you're worried about people having access to your phone number who already have access to your phone number. Signal using phone numbers as account identifiers has it's issues, this is not one of them.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#73

Post by newsignup »

StavrosK wrote: post #63
newsignup wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which unique id? I thought the point of sending it via Signal was to not include any user id or any other id.

I don't know which attack the Signal guys had in mind, but usually how this works is that the server serves a file with a unique ID to a person, sees that it gets requested, then serves the same thing again in a subsequent request to a suspect, sees that it's not requested, and treats that as evidence that the two accounts are actually the same person. It's obviously easier when you can correlate this with a single a…

Ah!

But this will correlate one file to that person and will not be able to correlate multiple file requests that they all belong to the exact same person.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#74

Post by h4waii »

MikusR wrote: post #57
moosingin3space wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Signal/OWS seems to develop new features on Android first, and that animation up top is an Android phone...

It's not an Android phone. Android has either on screen Navigation Bar or Physical Navigation Bar not both.

What are you on about? You can enable on-screen buttons while still having physical capacitive buttons.

http://m.imgur.com/u5hcJYQ

Many 3rd party custom ROMs have the feature, including CyanogenMod, the most widespread open-source build of AOSP.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#75

Post by Joeboy »

Vinnl wrote: post #61
aluhut wrote: post #60

It makes me sad so see that they waste time on decoration like gif search but they don't have a client I can use on my PC for example.

Not perfect, but: https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop/

Because I know moxie comes here sometimes:

I can live with it being a Chrome app, but I'd really like it if I could use it to send messages to people who don't have Signal (like I can with the Android app). Signal mostly takes the path of being a drop-in replacement for my SMS app, so it seems a shame not to do the same here.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#76

Post by wtbob »

aluhut wrote: post #60

It makes me sad so see that they waste time on decoration like gif search but they don't have a client I can use on my PC for example.

I wish that they'd support secure contact sharing. And non-phone-number IDs.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#77

Post by knz »

morsch wrote: post #72
knz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've given up on Signal (for now at least). Yes the encryption and privacy is great but without a decent desktop client it's hard to get others in my network to switch to it. Two things bothered me about the desktop application - it runs as a Chrome application rather than in a tab (not sure if there is a technical reason for this?). If I care enough out privacy to run Signal then I probably don't want to broadcast t…

There is a desktop client. It's packaged as a Chrome app. Some people downthread think a "decent" desktop app must be (more) standalone. You seem to think a "decent" desktop app should live inside a browser tab. It's hard to make everybody happy. People need to stop claiming there is no desktop app just because the very clearly existing one does not fulfill their own arbitrary set of criteria. I don't know if you can…

I don't mean to be negative about Signal. I appreciate the work they have put into it and understand that the platform is maturing - as you said, they can't please everyone.

The chrome app vs tab is definitely a minor issue related to user preference. It's not a deal breaker for me personally but others in my network (who are less concerned about privacy) will not switch if it's not easy. Not being able to sign out is a possible deal breaker and seems like basic functionality that has security implications.

Thanks for the information about the phone numbers - I understand that they aren't a "contact" in the sense that we added each other. I do think the issue of having control over who can see my phone number is a valid one though. How would I block someone I no longer want to have contact with without changing my phone number? Again, this seems like basic functionality for a platform that is concerned about security and privacy.

Here are screenshots from the desktop app showing the only options I can see:

http://imgur.com/5nK07ER - the default screen (includes the contact that I mentioned in my first post as someone I can message right now.)

http://imgur.com/mmEyQWH - the settings UI

Re: Signal and Giphy

#78

Post by finnn »

mnx wrote: post #2

This is a clever way to do this, but it still seems like someone caring about their privacy should just do without gifs. Edit: I should rephrase - I mean someone with a larger-than-usual need for privacy, someone paranoid for a reason. This is great for the typical privacy concious user. But if I was sending documents to WikiLeaks, I would not sum them up with a cute GIF.

At what point has Signal ever indicated that they were targeting users that were trying to send documents to wikileaks (or require similar levels of privacy/security). They have consistently said they are trying to build a messaging app that normal people want to use over stopping targeted attacks. eg [0]

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10665520

Re: Signal and Giphy

#79

Post by aluhut »

wtbob wrote: post #76
aluhut wrote: post #60

It makes me sad so see that they waste time on decoration like gif search but they don't have a client I can use on my PC for example.

I wish that they'd support secure contact sharing. And non-phone-number IDs.

Yes, exactly. You'd think those should be basics for a chat application that is so focused on security. You would expect that.

What you would not expect is gif search...

Re: Signal and Giphy

#80

Post by mnx »

finnn wrote: post #78
mnx wrote: post #2

This is a clever way to do this, but it still seems like someone caring about their privacy should just do without gifs. Edit: I should rephrase - I mean someone with a larger-than-usual need for privacy, someone paranoid for a reason. This is great for the typical privacy concious user. But if I was sending documents to WikiLeaks, I would not sum them up with a cute GIF.

At what point has Signal ever indicated that they were targeting users that were trying to send documents to wikileaks (or require similar levels of privacy/security). They have consistently said they are trying to build a messaging app that normal people want to use over stopping targeted attacks. eg [0] [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10665520

Well, than I guess I got the wrong idea about them. I thought WhatsApp was supposed to be "for the common people", and Signal was more targeted towards the paranoid.
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