131–140 of 367 posts
I hope one day apps like Signal will be the default for everyone , not just protesters in a time of crisis.
I don't think that's a great idea until Signal stops exposing the phone number of the user to everyone else (for all the bashing that Telegram gets on cryptography, it has mechanisms to hide one's phone number and even the fact that one has a Telegram account from others).
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I don't think that's a great idea until Signal stops exposing the phone number of the user to everyone else (for all the bashing that Telegram gets on cryptography, it has mechanisms to hide one's phone number and even the fact that one has a Telegram account from others).
Absolutely agree. I really wish Telegram would get off the phone number system, especially after the embarrassing hack in Brazil. It's not explicitly Telegram's fault, but if your primary authentication method is insecure it's at least a little bit your fault. Phone numbers are NOT safe. I don't know why SMS MFA is even a thing, they're worse than passwords. When you use phone numbers or SMS for security, you are put…
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Does it tho? It changed a lot during the last years and for most stuff I do with my friends (videocalls, textmessages, recorded speechmessages, pictures, videos, groupstuff, desktop app) it just works fine.
With the exception of desktop app, I agree :). The desktop app takes several minutes to open (at least on Linux), so I find that the only way to use it is to start it at boot and always leave it open. I'm still hoping that someone may create other clients, e.g. a Pidgin backend. The mobile apps, on the other hand, work really well. Been using them for years now, both on Android and iOS.
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I would ditch WhatsApp in a heartbeat if Signal had a browser client.
Will only ever happen once Signal ditches their dependency on mobile phone number.
I hope one day apps like Signal will be the default for everyone , not just protesters in a time of crisis.
I don't think that's a great idea until Signal stops exposing the phone number of the user to everyone else (for all the bashing that Telegram gets on cryptography, it has mechanisms to hide one's phone number and even the fact that one has a Telegram account from others).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
With the exception of desktop app, I agree :). The desktop app takes several minutes to open (at least on Linux), so I find that the only way to use it is to start it at boot and always leave it open. I'm still hoping that someone may create other clients, e.g. a Pidgin backend. The mobile apps, on the other hand, work really well. Been using them for years now, both on Android and iOS.
The desktop app situation is pretty similar for all messaging apps. I don't really know any messaging application that has good, native desktop apps. Can't really include iMessage in good faith due to the platform restrictions.
Signal exposes the user's phone number, better alternative is to use burner phones or Telegram.
The biggest drawback with Signal for protesters is that it exposes the user's phone number to everyone else in groups (just like WhatsApp does). There is no way to even hide the fact that you have an account on Signal. I can add phone numbers by enumeration into my contacts and Signal will show who among my contacts is on it. If the authorities don't use tactics like they did in Hong Kong, the protesters may be safe…
The biggest drawback with Signal for protesters is that it exposes the user's phone number to everyone else in groups (just like WhatsApp does). There is no way to even hide the fact that you have an account on Signal. I can add phone numbers by enumeration into my contacts and Signal will show who among my contacts is on it. If the authorities don't use tactics like they did in Hong Kong, the protesters may be safe…
This tradeoff is arguably a good thing. By using phone numbers as IDs signal can rely on your phone's local contacts (meaning they don't have to send your social graph to their servers). This way they can keep very little metadata on you. There's pretty much nothing for them to turn over except the fact that your phone number has the signal app. Most of the other secure apps could turn over your entire contact list (…
The biggest drawback with Signal for protesters is that it exposes the user's phone number to everyone else in groups (just like WhatsApp does). There is no way to even hide the fact that you have an account on Signal. I can add phone numbers by enumeration into my contacts and Signal will show who among my contacts is on it. If the authorities don't use tactics like they did in Hong Kong, the protesters may be safe…
Signal is not only used by protesters[0][1] so discovering that a phone number is connected to a Signal account by no means implies that the phone is used by a protester. [0]: https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2020/01/23/deploye... [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/17/tories-swit...
I am not sure about the situation in the US, but in Europe almost all phone numbers are directly linked to a certain person and address by the provider.