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Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

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Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#21

Signal is becoming a joke that we should reconsider using, and now has dangerous bugs that is at the edge of compromising people's privacy. Has this app/service really been audited properly? We now need to consider serious alternatives that we should get behind like Element [0] or Session [1] but I am open to user friendly alternatives other than Signal (at worst even Quill [2] or Delta Chat [3]). [0] https://element…

> Has this app/service really been audited properly?

Yes, repeatedly: https://community.signalusers.org/t/wiki-overview-of-third-p...

Edit: that said, this did make me revisit a question I asked signal via their Careers portal a long while back. Reposted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27952315

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#22

Signal has been adding lots of silly social media like features lately, not surprising that they are messing up the core value prop. I’m shopping for a new encrypted messenger. They used to say every program expands in scope until it can read email, now every app expands until you can add Snapchat filters to your selfies.

is Wire still around and does somebody know if it's good? I remember reading about it because it used Haskell but I never tried it out.

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#23
post #21

Signal is becoming a joke that we should reconsider using, and now has dangerous bugs that is at the edge of compromising people's privacy. Has this app/service really been audited properly? We now need to consider serious alternatives that we should get behind like Element [0] or Session [1] but I am open to user friendly alternatives other than Signal (at worst even Quill [2] or Delta Chat [3]). [0] https://element…

> Has this app/service really been audited properly? Yes, repeatedly: https://community.signalusers.org/t/wiki-overview-of-third-p... Edit: that said, this did make me revisit a question I asked signal via their Careers portal a long while back. Reposted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27952315

And yet there are serious bugs like this that slip through the net, a simple benchmark of any chat app should not be showing other people's messages like what Signal is doing.

I would expect that an app that has repetitive audits would have resulted in this bug being fixed already.

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#24

Signal has been adding lots of silly social media like features lately, not surprising that they are messing up the core value prop. I’m shopping for a new encrypted messenger. They used to say every program expands in scope until it can read email, now every app expands until you can add Snapchat filters to your selfies.

It’s not enough for signal to work for tech people. You have to be able to convince your family and friends to use it, it’s a network effects problem. They are adding features so that ordinary people can have private communications

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email. Why are we still trying to push these instant messaging apps that are a privacy and security nightmare? (I realise email has security issues too).

Email has weaker EtoE encryption than these IM solutions. Even with GPG. Too much metadata is leaked. However the decentralised nature of email is one crucial advantage it has over these apps.

I agree about the EtoE encryption weaknesses. However since I can send email from my own email server to another email server without it touching a 3rd party (not including the ISPs and DNS servers) means EtoE is not such a massive issue.

I can't make phone calls or video calls over email, but for text, small files and images it's perfect (given how long email has been around it goes to show how good it is).

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#26

Signal has been adding lots of silly social media like features lately, not surprising that they are messing up the core value prop. I’m shopping for a new encrypted messenger. They used to say every program expands in scope until it can read email, now every app expands until you can add Snapchat filters to your selfies.

Delta chat starts from reading email and theb works backwards: https://delta.chat/en/

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#27
post #16

Signal has been adding lots of silly social media like features lately, not surprising that they are messing up the core value prop. I’m shopping for a new encrypted messenger. They used to say every program expands in scope until it can read email, now every app expands until you can add Snapchat filters to your selfies.

Matrix is a solid replacement. Element isn't as easy to use but it's coming along. Quality-of-life features normal users expect like stickers, gifs, etc. are woefully lacking, but the important stuff (y'know, actual messaging) is solid. The most important thing to me is if Element screws up like Signal and starts pushing a shitcoin, I can swap clients without affecting my network.

Also, Matrix supports other client implementations than Element, like https://fluffychat.im/

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#28

While I suppose the protocol is not at fault and it's a UI and client bug it's still a huge problem. Just today I was thinking ”it's been weeks since they moved the GIF button to a different place but there's still the old button at the old place and when you click on it there's a pop-up "wrong, the button is somewhere else now"”. Why even keep the old button in the old place ? And it led me to thinking "what else co…

This underscores why it’s important to allow third party clients to connect. When only the first-party client is allowed, the failings of its UI drag down the core, too — it doesn’t matter how good the core is if it’s permanently mated to a half-baked UI.

And when third parties can connect, the protocol can't evolve because every change becomes "good to simplement" but it takes an enormous amount of time, resources And influence to change to "mandatory to implement". As always it's a delicate balance between security And ease of use, and Signal has always been up front in favoring the former.

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#30

Signal has been adding lots of silly social media like features lately, not surprising that they are messing up the core value prop. I’m shopping for a new encrypted messenger. They used to say every program expands in scope until it can read email, now every app expands until you can add Snapchat filters to your selfies.

I hate the new ability to add emoji responses to message chat bubbles. It has turned my conversations (especially group ones) into a Facebook like experience where everyone expects a cry face emoji or heart on everything they say. It gives me that same feeling of dread I used to get when I had a Facebook. I just want to send and receive text messages, not be engaged constantly to my phone.
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