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Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

nytimes.com

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Re: Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

#121

Post by mintplant »

Zak wrote: post #118

That said, Signal is not perfect. It lacks some features of other messaging apps, like the ability to send stickers. That this is a deficiency worthy of mention reveals just how different the average person's values about what a messaging app should do are from mine.

I know multiple people who stay on Telegram because it has stickers and Signal doesn't. It's a real thing, to the point where I've considered diving into Signal's code and implementing them on top of the existing support for sending photos.

Missing feature #2: only the Android app can be paired with Signal Desktop; the iOS app is left out. What's up with that?

Re: Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

#122

Post by enraged_camel »

woah wrote: post #111

Their goal is to reduce government secrecy by making it hard to keep things secret. You supported this when it was making the other team look bad and you oppose it now. Republicans have taken the opposite view of Wikileaks, and flip-flopped the other way. At least be honest with yourself a see that your only opinion on the matter is that you don't like the other side.

You must be living in some sort of alternate reality, because the leaks that gained WikiLeaks its infamy[1] occurred in 2010, during the Obama Administration. After that, there was another long series of leaks during 2011-2015 [2], which included the complete draft of the TPP (of which Obama was in favor).

Furthermore, WikiLeaks used to carefully comb through documents and leak only those that would not cause personal harm. They did no such thing with the most recent leaks during the election season. Some of the emails they leaked contained personal information of donors, including home addresses and social security numbers. That's grossly irresponsible. It was clear they had a partisan political agenda that went above and beyond anti-secrecy in government.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_documents_leak

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks#2011.E2.80.932015

Re: Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

#123

Post by Forbo »

mintplant wrote: post #121
Zak wrote: post #118

That said, Signal is not perfect. It lacks some features of other messaging apps, like the ability to send stickers. That this is a deficiency worthy of mention reveals just how different the average person's values about what a messaging app should do are from mine.

I know multiple people who stay on Telegram because it has stickers and Signal doesn't. It's a real thing, to the point where I've considered diving into Signal's code and implementing them on top of the existing support for sending photos. Missing feature #2: only the Android app can be paired with Signal Desktop; the iOS app is left out. What's up with that?

#2 has been implemented since September: https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop-ios/

Re: Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

#124

Post by k-mcgrady »

pdabbadabba wrote: post #115
woah wrote: post #111

Their goal is to reduce government secrecy by making it hard to keep things secret. You supported this when it was making the other team look bad and you oppose it now. Republicans have taken the opposite view of Wikileaks, and flip-flopped the other way. At least be honest with yourself a see that your only opinion on the matter is that you don't like the other side.

1. The actual leaks that WikiLeaks have published have virtually all targetted the Obama administration, so I'm not sure how you suppose the leaks have previously been making the "other team" look bad. By most accounts, Obama and Clinton are on the same "team." 2a. I don't see how you could seriously suggest that WikiLeaks's behavior in this election is no different than what they had done previously. 2b. If you can…

>> "I'm not sure how you suppose the leaks have previously been making the "other team" look bad"

The largest leak in US military history?? [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War_documents_leak

Re: Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

#126

Post by SamBam »

james_pm wrote: post #88

I continue to be disappointed by headlines like, "Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal" which implies that only some people should be worried about privacy. You'd think that the revelations about the NSA, things like the UK law that requires ISPs to collect and store your Internet browsing history would have more people "worried" but yet it's still pretty much a lost cause to try to explain to…

That's because most people don't have a clear idea of what the downside is if the NSA gets their information.

I don't have a clear idea of what the downside is if the NSA gets my information. So I haven't bothered to download Signal.

I don't mean this in the disparaging way that folks who use "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about" do, but the truth is that most people assume that Facebook and Google know a huge amount about them already, and that if the NSA wants to find out about them, so what?

Maybe a better education campaign to convince those people who don't believe that they have anything to hide why they need apps like Signal would be an important first step.

Re: Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

#127

Post by uselpa »

zedred wrote: post #76
billyvg wrote: post #54

My friends and I have used GroupMe (which is owned by Skype) for a few years now and some of us wanted to migrate due to privacy. We tried out Signal, but there were some major usability problems in you intend to use it as a "group chat" replacement. My biggest issue with it is that there is no mute feature for iOS. Yes you can turn off notifications at the iOS level, but I want the ability to only have @-mentions to…

I recently switched from Android to iPhone and was pretty surprised by how much lower quality the Signal app is for iPhone than Android. Signal for Android was really amazing, and the switch made me think this could be one reason why so many people seem to speak both highly and poorly of Signal. The iPhone app just unfortunately seems to be way behind the Android app. Not sure why they have prioritized development in…

Android owns close to 90% of the market.

Re: Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

#128

Post by Jarwain »

enraged_camel wrote: post #122
woah wrote: post #111

Their goal is to reduce government secrecy by making it hard to keep things secret. You supported this when it was making the other team look bad and you oppose it now. Republicans have taken the opposite view of Wikileaks, and flip-flopped the other way. At least be honest with yourself a see that your only opinion on the matter is that you don't like the other side.

You must be living in some sort of alternate reality, because the leaks that gained WikiLeaks its infamy[1] occurred in 2010, during the Obama Administration. After that, there was another long series of leaks during 2011-2015 [2], which included the complete draft of the TPP (of which Obama was in favor). Furthermore, WikiLeaks used to carefully comb through documents and leak only those that would not cause persona…

There are a lot of people who believe that Wikileaks is compromised and that Assange is captured. There are also some who believe this to be some conspiracy theory.

The people who believe the former are waiting on Proof of Life, and do not believe they have gotten it.

Re: Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

#129

Post by whybroke »

tdkl wrote: post #125

For anyone wondering - this is an example of an ad posing as an article.

The mere act of using Signal is suspicious. But if usage is universal then that suspicion can not be acted on.

The suggestion that the motivation for this article is profit for the NYT or Moxie is quite destructive.

Re: Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal

#130

Post by tim333 »

james_pm wrote: post #88

I continue to be disappointed by headlines like, "Worried About the Privacy of Your Messages? Download Signal" which implies that only some people should be worried about privacy. You'd think that the revelations about the NSA, things like the UK law that requires ISPs to collect and store your Internet browsing history would have more people "worried" but yet it's still pretty much a lost cause to try to explain to…

My messages are pretty dull. I'm not at all worried about their privacy.
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