Sigh, just the usual. If you don't know the platform's nuances, you are fckd.
FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
161–170 of 322 posts
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#162I wonder why Apple doesn't 'just' delete the notification data associated with the app from the internal database when the user deletes the app? It seems like asking for problems to just keep old notification content around forever.
It's one of those problems where as soon as someone notices, it's crazy that no one noticed. I can't imagine this not being overhauled going forward. It's just a bad way to operate and now it's news.
> I can't imagine this not being overhauled going forward.
On which end, Apple or Signal? Because neither Apple nor Google will overhaul this behavior, the FBI asked for it directly: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/apple-admits-to-...
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#163Settings > 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.
WhatsApp supports this too.
Settings > Notifications > Show preview
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
Making the product worse for everybody because a minority can’t manage their own settings is a terrible strategy.
Do most people keep the notifications disabled for their messaging apps?
It's just a mental compartmentalization thing for me. When I want to get into slack/signal chatting mode or read messages I load such an app and look/interact. When I'm not doing that I don't want to be bothered with messages. I'm already sacrificing a portion of my life to work related tasks and being in front of a computer at many hours, when I'm not in that mode I don't want to be interrupted - people who need to reach me in an emergency have other ways to get ahold of me.
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#165Was this not a known issue (in terms of trade-offs) for years? I recall discussion back in 2018 at least that made mention of this concern.
https://github.com/RealityNet/iOS-Forensics-References https://theforensicscooter.com/2021/10/03/ios-knowledgec-db-...
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#166Sounds like an intentional government feature. Just speculation though. I'm glad I have a Pixel, but I'm on the default OS and need to switch to GrapiousOS (secure version). Just haven't due to lack of nice Google features.
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#167Just curious, how come at least once a month signal bugs me to turn on notifications? I said no for a reason, every single time - why does it keep asking? Not implying anything evil but it feels a bit weird esp after this.
Signal developer here. It's just because notification reliability is always a top support complaint, and a lot of people turn off notifications and don't realize they've done so. Admittedly, once a month is likely too aggressive.
> notification reliability is always a top support complaint
I know octogenarians who use signal daily. "You called me and it didn't ring" or "messaged and it didn't beep" are definitely the top support complaints I receive. Thanks for being sensitive to this use case.
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#168While it's definitely surprising that the OS caches this data after the notifications have been swiped away, I always thought that notifications are an obvious hole in the whole E2E encryption setup.
AIUI, Signal push notifications just saying a message was received. Signal then fetches the E2E encrypted message from the server and decrypts it locally. So Apple/Google cannot read the messages, nor can Signal servers.
AIUI, Signal decrypts the E2EE message locally, but then sends the decrypted message to iOS in order to display the notification to the user. iOS then stores this data and it persists after the user dismisses the notification.
This makes sense and there's really no way around it without a change from Apple. If iOS is going to show the user a Signal notification with the decrypted message in the notification body, then iOS must be given the decrypted message. iOS could (and probably should) delete that data off the device as soon as the user dismisses/engages with the notification. But it sounds like they do not.
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Signal should switch the default to being less verbose.
Not really, that would discourage use by normies.
Re: FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your app needs to send a notification while it's not currently a running process, it must go through Firebase on Google's side and APNS on Apple's side. There is no way for a non running app to send a notification entirely locally, this is by design of both companies.
Signal developer here. Not entirely sure what you're saying. I'm only an Android guy, but FCM messages are certainly one trigger that can allow an app process to run, but it's not the only trigger. You can schedule system alarms, jobs, etc. And the notification does not need to be provided by the FCM message. In our case, the server just sends empty FCM messages to wake up the app, we fetch the messages ourselves fro…
Sure but it needs to go through Firebase regardless of the content of the notification message, I do not believe there is a way to use a third party notification service which does not depend on Firebase.