Privacy is priceless, but Signal is expensive • Hacker News Board

Re: Privacy is priceless, but Signal is expensive

#961

Post by pelasaco » Fri, Nov 24, 2023, 7:30 AM UTC

johnnyanmac wrote: post #960

pelasaco wrote: post #959

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, so what's the problem? What is the problem of managers of a non-profit company earning around 700k/year and the company is writing blog posts complaining that the the company operation is too expensive? I think if you read it aloud, you will understand it.

When the numbers total $50m in operations and the CEO is making about as much as a principal Google engineer: no, I don't see the issue. Even if he made $0 the issue remains given that every part of the server operation costs more than him. But sure. What do you think is a fair salary or totalccomp for a founder and CEO of a popular, privacy focused app?

> CEO is making about as much as a principal Google engineer

From a company living from donations... It is illusion (probably a California thing), to think that you are going to compete salary wise with FAANG. The time will tell (well their complaining about money, is already hinting it)...

Re: Privacy is priceless, but Signal is expensive

#962

Post by johnnyanmac » Fri, Nov 24, 2023, 8:06 AM UTC

pelasaco wrote: post #961

johnnyanmac wrote: post #960

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the numbers total $50m in operations and the CEO is making about as much as a principal Google engineer: no, I don't see the issue. Even if he made $0 the issue remains given that every part of the server operation costs more than him. But sure. What do you think is a fair salary or totalccomp for a founder and CEO of a popular, privacy focused app?

> CEO is making about as much as a principal Google engineer From a company living from donations... It is illusion (probably a California thing), to think that you are going to compete salary wise with FAANG. The time will tell (well their complaining about money, is already hinting it)...

But they aren't. A principal engineer is not a CEO but probably makes more at top companies.

I don't even work at a FAANG and I was making almost as much as the director there who lists 200k or so total comp. Probably with 20 years less experience to boot. I don't live in SF either; High CoL area but not SF.

That's why I asked you what's a "reasonable" salary. I'm wondering what your POV here is in terms of compensation.

Re: Privacy is priceless, but Signal is expensive

#963

Post by aisha_mc » Fri, Nov 24, 2023, 9:57 AM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #33

Dunedan wrote: post #2

> Storage: $1.3 million dollars per year. > Servers: $2.9 million dollars per year. > Registration Fees: $6 million dollars per year. > Total Bandwidth: $2.8 million dollars per year. > Additional Services: $700,000 dollars per year. Signal pays more for delivering verification SMS during sign-up, than for all other infrastructure (except traffic) combined. Wow, that sounds excessive.

SMS rates are absolutely bonkers considering the technical way they're transmitted. The US is an outlier in SMS rates actually being reasonable (usually unlimited or close to) for consumers - but for the rest of the world the insane mark up on that communication method has mostly obsoleted it... That'd be all well and good... the technology would die naturally, but all my American relatives continue to stubbornly use…

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Re: Privacy is priceless, but Signal is expensive

#964

Post by pelasaco » Fri, Nov 24, 2023, 9:58 AM UTC

johnnyanmac wrote: post #962

pelasaco wrote: post #961

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CEO is making about as much as a principal Google engineer From a company living from donations... It is illusion (probably a California thing), to think that you are going to compete salary wise with FAANG. The time will tell (well their complaining about money, is already hinting it)...

But they aren't. A principal engineer is not a CEO but probably makes more at top companies. I don't even work at a FAANG and I was making almost as much as the director there who lists 200k or so total comp. Probably with 20 years less experience to boot. I don't live in SF either; High CoL area but not SF. That's why I asked you what's a "reasonable" salary. I'm wondering what your POV here is in terms of compensat…

Top European salary would be a third of that.

Re: Privacy is priceless, but Signal is expensive

#965

Post by tobinfricke » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 1:45 AM UTC

k_bx wrote: post #910

tobinfricke wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not stored on the server, except perhaps transiently.

If I open an old chat, and press "play" on old video, and it's downloading before being played, where is it download from? Same for downloading a file.

Hmm ... Good question.