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Signal Foundation

signal.org

51–60 of 298 posts

Re: Signal Foundation

#53

Anytime I hear about signal, I try to sign up and my verification code never comes. It may be something this simple that is holding it back from adoption.

I had a similar issue a long time ago. I was able to circumvent the roadblock by signing up on a different device, and then signing in on the original device.

Re: Signal Foundation

#54
post #39
post #27

Any reason Signal isn't available through F-Droid? It may be unjustified but I'm not a big fan of installing privacy conscious apps through Play. Edit: Wait, haven't installed anything yet, but I read the getting started guide. I have to sign up using a phone number? That throws all expectation of anonymity and thus privacy out the window.

Telegram is available on F-Droid. It's similar to Signal with more functionality and greater ease of use - https://f-droid.org/packages/org.telegram.messenger/ You need a phone number that can receive texts for the initial setup, but once you're set up people can add you by @username and never need your number. Stuff like https://www.textnow.com/downloads works just fine for the initial text. Once you have a single d…

All crypto is weak until proven otherwise. Telegram never received a good review from cryptographers. The fact that no POC was provided may just as well mean no cryptographer cares enough to find a bug.

Re: Signal Foundation

#55
I don’t think I feel good about this. The comments are nice and seem true, but whenever there is so much money involved, even a non profit label I would be suspicious. Are all funding and allocations going to be made public for the organization? People always seem to have a hidden self interest, especially when money is involved.

Re: Signal Foundation

#56

What is Signal Foundation's vision for interoperable, open-standard E2E messaging between different central services?

A null vision. Moxie is against federation, and he's against interoperable clients. https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/ https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37

I really, really wish that he'd reconsider. Interoperability is a huge Good Deal.

Re: Signal Foundation

#58
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope they eventually develop a federated , privacy oriented messaging protocol, once the rapid technological evolution settles down. I know Moxie's position on federated protocols [1], but I think we must eventually agree that an open environment with a multitude of providers and implementations is the only way to provide long term privacy - any single provider is vulnerable. It would also be a very useful tool in…

Signal Protocol is one of the best documented cryptographic message protocols on the planet, and is accompanied by multiple GPL'd implementations. https://signal.org/docs/

which sounds like it could be used to develop a federated protocol. I've heard there is an effort to do an RFC on the subject, but I'm not sure it uses the Signal protocols (for some reason), also there are two of them (I'm confused):

* https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-barnes-mls-protocol-00

* https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-omara-mls-architecture-01

Re: Signal Foundation

#59
post #27

Any reason Signal isn't available through F-Droid? It may be unjustified but I'm not a big fan of installing privacy conscious apps through Play. Edit: Wait, haven't installed anything yet, but I read the getting started guide. I have to sign up using a phone number? That throws all expectation of anonymity and thus privacy out the window.

I'm not sure of your assumption that lack of total anonymity implies no privacy. They are independently important concepts. You can have privacy (no knowledge of information shared) without anonymity.

That's true, but I believe the concern would be that there's information just in knowing:

1) what's your number, and 2) with whom you connect or communicate.

That is, there's still the danger of social graph analysis: "Oh look, this person's communicating with a known journalist!"

Re: Signal Foundation

#60
post #27

Any reason Signal isn't available through F-Droid? It may be unjustified but I'm not a big fan of installing privacy conscious apps through Play. Edit: Wait, haven't installed anything yet, but I read the getting started guide. I have to sign up using a phone number? That throws all expectation of anonymity and thus privacy out the window.

You can signup using the number of a public payphone if it makes you feel safer, with landline verification. (Of course, you expose yourself to having the account hijacked by anyone who figures it out and has acces to the payphone).

But it won't improve your anonymity significantly, unless you also use it over TOR.

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