First, a critical setting for Signal users: "Signal’s settings include an option that prevents the actual message content from being previewed in notifications. However, it appears the defendant did not have that setting enabled, which, in turn, seemingly allowed the system to store the content in the database." Second, how can I see this notification history?
FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
131–140 of 322 posts
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#132Probably stupid question: why won't they e2e-encrypt push notifications too? The vector is obvious and has been open since forever.
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. And technically, from a privacy perspective, it's even worse than that. What's additionally happening is they're still 'syncing' back to Apple servers via APNS (and to Alphabet servers via Firebase on Android)—even with notifications completely disabled , that's correct. If the app generates them, the OS receives them. That's why the Signal app offers this setting.
>it's even worse than that. What's additionally happening is they're still 'syncing' back to Apple servers via APNS (and to Alphabet servers via Firebase on Android)—even with notifications completely disabled, that's correct. Source? I don't think either OS implements notification syncing between devices, it's only one way, and as others have mentioned, the actually push notification doesn't contain any message cont…
Can't speak for iOS and no idea if this relates to the above functionality, but Pixel lets you deduplicate notifications across Pixel devices.
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
> why does it keep asking? Why does any software keep asking you to do things you explicitly told them you don't want to do? Because it's in the software developer's best interest to get you to do them, not yours. We've gotten way past the point in software where we no longer expect the software to serve the user's interest and solve the user's problems. Now, the expectation is that the user gets nagged and coerced i…
The Proton Drive app keeps asking me to turn on backups of photos and video. There is no option to say "don't ask again." I guess they /want/ more storage to be used? Or is there a support issue they are trying to deal with?
But it would be nice to have a "don't ask again" option regardless, even if it's hidden in settings.
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Signal does NOT send notification content througth APN/Firebase, their push notification is literaly a ping as you expected. Source: https://mastodon.world@Mer__edith/111563866152334347 (Meredith Whittaker is the current CEO of Signal) I can't link you rigth now to the actual code on their repo but it is verifiable.
Btw I clicked your mastodon link and it didnt work
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
> very bad user experience "To use the Signal desktop app, Signal must first be installed on your phone."
thank god whatsapp doesn't do that either. or telegram. or allo back in the day, or every single mobile first messaging app The only one I can think of that doesn't require a mobile login is iMessage, because it's not a chat app, it's lock in and data theft disguised as software
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
> why does it keep asking? Why does any software keep asking you to do things you explicitly told them you don't want to do? Because it's in the software developer's best interest to get you to do them, not yours. We've gotten way past the point in software where we no longer expect the software to serve the user's interest and solve the user's problems. Now, the expectation is that the user gets nagged and coerced i…
We build Signal for everyone, and that includes a lot of people who are not as technologically literate as the average tech worker. For a lot of people, they don't even know they dismissed the notification permission prompt, they were just closing boxes. For them, the reminder is helpful and prevents them from experiencing missing notifications. Striking a balance between helping these people and annoying more techno…
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#138Settings > Notifications > Notification Content > Show: "Name Only" or "No Name or Content" I've had this enabled to prevent sensitive messages from appearing in full whilst showing someone something on my phone, but I guess this is an added benefit as well.
Just to clarify, this is within the Signal app settings—not the OS (iOS or Android) system settings. Critical distinction, as merely changing OS notification settings will simply prevent notification content from being displayed on-screen.
Thank you for adding this to the conversation.
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
> why does it keep asking? Why does any software keep asking you to do things you explicitly told them you don't want to do? Because it's in the software developer's best interest to get you to do them, not yours. We've gotten way past the point in software where we no longer expect the software to serve the user's interest and solve the user's problems. Now, the expectation is that the user gets nagged and coerced i…
We build Signal for everyone, and that includes a lot of people who are not as technologically literate as the average tech worker. For a lot of people, they don't even know they dismissed the notification permission prompt, they were just closing boxes. For them, the reminder is helpful and prevents them from experiencing missing notifications. Striking a balance between helping these people and annoying more techno…
I don't see my computers as partners or helpful assistants or eager interns. I see them as tools for reliably performing computation, and I expect them to operate that way.
I fully understand that this means that fewer and fewer developers are "building their software for me" and I find that pretty disappointing.