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Signal for Beginners

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Re: Signal for Beginners

#41

Post by arglebarnacle »

xorcist wrote: post #29
arglebarnacle wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sensitive to this concern, but remember that the phone number you register with Signal doesn't have to be your real phone number or identical to the phone number of your primary Signal device. You can just get a VOIP number or burner phone somewhere in a relatively anonymous manner, register it with Signal on your android phone, and go about your business if anonymity is an important requirement for you.

Isn't that risky? The subscriber number will sooner or later be recycled for another device (in the case of burner phones) or customer (in the case of voip). They could in turn disrupt your Signal use.

I think I misspoke. Rather than a true burner phone you'd want to use a prepaid phone with minutes that don't expire, or that you can keep active by using a minute every 90 days etc.

Definitely a hassle, but for anyone for whom a phone number is insufficiently anonymous I would imagine they're used to it.

I admittedly don't know as much about the options for VOIP but I've got to to believe there's a way to get a phone number on the internet where you can receive SMS and keep it active indefinitely.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#42

Post by pokemongoaway »

jhauris wrote: post #26
notheguyouthink wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as is knowing that all my eggs are spread out among several baskets now. This is what i want (and what i'm actively working towards) ! The "banned from Google" talk has really harmed them in my eyes.. at least for people like me. I hadn't really questioned Google in the past, but now i'm looking to spread out my eggs as much as possible. Very important to me.

You can always host your own sync stack.

Any info on how to do this with the various Google services? -- Android Photo backup -- All Google Apps -- Everything that Chrome Syncs -- Android backup/recovery

Re: Signal for Beginners

#43

Post by zeveb »

privong wrote: post #27
wtbob wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you think of anything easier? I think signal:wtbob works just as well as tel:+15551212, if we want to continue to rely on OWS as a central identity provider. I think that 'mom's dad's sister June' also works, if we want decentralised identity.

> I think signal:wtbob works just as well as tel:+15551212 That doesn't work as well for auto-discovery of other Signal users, though. The latter enables auto-discovery based on people whose phone numbers are already in one's contact books. With the former, one needs to collect other people's usernames. It's not a tough thing to do, but it does make auto-discovery difficult.

> That doesn't work as well for auto-discovery of other Signal users, though.

It does if one's Contacts app stores Signal contact information for one's contacts; then one could simply query using non-Signal information as the key (e.g. one could ask, 'give me Signal contact information for tel:+15551212, mailto:fizzbuzz@barquux.org and http://plus.google.com/SomeUserName').

Re: Signal for Beginners

#44

Post by whyoh »

lorenzhs wrote: post #11
saycheese wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per the offical docs, you are required to create an account on a phone to use the desktop version: http://support.whispersystems.org/hc/en-us/articles/21507785... __________________ What do I need? 1. Register and set up Signal Android or Signal iOS 2. Download and install Google Chrome or use Chromium +++++++ EDIT: Having to buy and throw away a phone to use a service that's intent is to provide privacy is what it i…

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough - you need a phone for initial setup. After that, you can throw away the phone (or put it in airplane mode for a less permanent solution) and the Desktop client will keep working. In contrast, WhatsApp Web sends messages via your phone, so your phone needs to be on and connected to use it. Not so with Signal. That said, registration independent of a phone number comes up a lot here. Sig…

>implementing this in a way that maintains Signal's ease of use for all participants isn't exactly trivial (contact discovery is a big one).

I disagree, as long as it's an OPTIONAL and non-default method. Many people (billions?) have been registering to various messaging services (from email to Skype and all kinds of IMs) and finding each other just fine, without using a phone/phone number.

Phone based authentication has a couple of advantages too, but when a "privacy oriented" messaging app has this as the only option it's fair to point it out.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#45

Post by privong »

zeveb wrote: post #43
privong wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think signal:wtbob works just as well as tel:+15551212 That doesn't work as well for auto-discovery of other Signal users, though. The latter enables auto-discovery based on people whose phone numbers are already in one's contact books. With the former, one needs to collect other people's usernames. It's not a tough thing to do, but it does make auto-discovery difficult.

> That doesn't work as well for auto-discovery of other Signal users, though. It does if one's Contacts app stores Signal contact information for one's contacts; then one could simply query using non-Signal information as the key (e.g. one could ask, 'give me Signal contact information for tel:+15551212, mailto:fizzbuzz@barquux.org and http://plus.google.com/SomeUserName' ).

> one could simply query using non-Signal information as the key (e.g. one could ask, 'give me Signal contact information for tel:+15551212, mailto:fizzbuzz@barquux.org and http://plus.google.com/SomeUserName').

That doesn't seem like a very good tradeoff because then it requires Signal to store/compare _more_ personally identifying information (though I guess you could make many of those things pseudo-anonymous).

Re: Signal for Beginners

#46

Post by a_imho »

To me it feels Signal just wants to become the new WhatsApp more than anything. Yes, I'm basing this on the gif support and that it requires a phone number. The security argument only worked as long as whatsapp and co. did not roll out e2ee. I could support a sincere attempt that want to do good which OWS seemed to be doing, but now that they are competing on the emoji front they have lost their edge for me*

*I don't really have a horse in this as I use none of them

Re: Signal for Beginners

#47

Post by morganvachon »

tambourine_man wrote: post #23
morganvachon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I find the fact that they are chrome apps...very annoying That's my biggest issue with Signal as well. I very recently (as in, over the past two days) completely dropped Google from my life[1]. I switched from Gmail to FastMail for email, calendar, and contacts, and FastMail also offers 10GB of file storage at their middle tier, which is about five times as much space as I was using in Google Drive. I switched from…

What about maps and transportation? That battery life sure is impressive

I knew I forgot to mention some things. So far MAPS.ME has been an acceptable replacement for navigation, and its performance has been surprisingly good. I still don't like being tied to a closed source mapping app though, so I'm going to give OSMAnd a spin as well.

The battery life surprised the hell out of me, especially since I spent a couple of hours getting the launcher set up the way I like it. It's telling how much battery and data are used when your phone is constantly in contact with the mothership versus a device that only connects to a service when you strictly allow it.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#48

Post by morganvachon »

wtbob wrote: post #22
morganvachon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I find the fact that they are chrome apps...very annoying That's my biggest issue with Signal as well. I very recently (as in, over the past two days) completely dropped Google from my life[1]. I switched from Gmail to FastMail for email, calendar, and contacts, and FastMail also offers 10GB of file storage at their middle tier, which is about five times as much space as I was using in Google Drive. I switched from…

> As on the desktop, I'm using Firefox on the phone mostly for the syncing capability Be aware that if your Mozilla account password is not a fully-secure, unmemorable, random string then it is possible to break into Sync: unlike previously, the only thing securing your Sync data is your password. Also be aware that at any time Mozilla can push a piece of targeted JavaScript to you alone, which would reveal your pass…

Good to know, thanks. I do use a fairly secure password scheme; basically I memorize several smaller passwords made of random letters, numbers, and symbols, and I concatenate them in ways that make sense to me but (hopefully) are gibberish to anyone else. I try to use the maximum allowable string for each service, or as close as I can get with my system.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#49

Post by Mithaldu »

mvdwoord wrote: post #2

I have used Signal for a while, alongside Telegram and Whatsapp. I find the fact that they are chrome apps / require your phone to be online very annoying. Also I find signal regularly messes with the order of messages. Right now I am testing with Wire, and waiting for proper pasting from clipboard. Although I am concerned with privacy, and I applaud the efforts from OWS, usability is more important to me. It will al…

Wire is even worse because the person responsible for design and UX is unassailably high in the company, and doesn't take advice from anyone

Re: Signal for Beginners

#50

Post by heyAaronHatch »

If you haven't noticed, check out my comments in the article. I provide a concerned, critical response arguing for why Signal might not be a good idea. Or in the least, Mr. Shelton should explain the possible risks and dangers.
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