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Signal Desktop

whispersystems.org

231–240 of 288 posts

Re: Signal Desktop

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you articulate a _specific_ threat model under which this extension fails to protect against mass data collection by Google? Or is this idle speculation.

Google adds Google Analytics to their browser, to automatically report what a user does in Chrome apps, and "accidentally" your whole chat history ends up on Google’s servers? This is not an unrealistic example.

> Google adds Google Analytics to their browser

Source?

Re: Signal Desktop

#232
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're using Google groups to manage the beta testing program. Make sense since that's how you sign into the Chrome app store to download the app.

Isn't that just horrible? A secure messaging service that requires a google account for installation.

No, not /require/. Here: https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop (link from the webpage).

Go get bower and npm and build it yourself. It'll be a zipfile.

Re: Signal Desktop

#233
post #32

Why are all these encrypted chat programs (Signal, Telegram, &c.) still centralized and not TOR-style onion-routed?

I'm currently working on a decentralized instant messenger Ensichat [1] which does exactly that. Right now, it only works over Bluetooth, but internet support will be coming very soon!

But as others have mentioned, many problems become really difficult in a decentralized application, most importantly offline messaging.

[1] https://github.com/Nutomic/ensichat

Re: Signal Desktop

#234

This is slightly off topic but am I the only one surprised at the litany of permissions they require for the android app? Some make sense (like SMS or camera) but device & app history/location/identity/device ID & call info/contacts/calendar/microphone/phone seems like a smash and grab. I saw moxie speak at a conference once and he specifically called out the device id/call information permission as evidence that goo…

> am I the only one surprised

Why not ask your favorite search engine? Definitely faster than creating a HN account ;)

First Google search result: http://support.whispersystems.org/hc/en-us/articles/21253585...

Re: Signal Desktop

#235
post #84

I'm feeling dirty, because I don't like to be that negative, especially if we're talking open-source software. And I feel that I kinda hold this project to higher standards: If I compare this to WhatsApp/Telegram/Threema/Whatever, I inheritently, somewhat subconciously expect more from Signal. And I'm disappointed. I tend to repeat the 'central server' and 'a phone number is not an address and not public information,…

If we were going to rank our priorities, they would be in this order: 1) Make mass surveillance impossible. 2) Stop targeted attacks against crypto nerds. It's not that we don't find #2 laudable, but optimizing for #1 takes precedence when we're making decisions. If you don't want to use your phone number, don't use it. You can register with any GV, Twilio, Voicepulse, or other throwaway VoIP number. If you don't wan…

> 1) Make mass surveillance impossible.

That's an extremely noble goal, and it seems you've made great progress towards it, but..

Will the US government really just let you do it? Have they not interfered yet? It seems highly unlikely that they wouldn't somehow neutralize the threat your work represents, so I'm just.. cautiously optimistic instead of really excited.

Re: Signal Desktop

#236
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That name would imply your phone had to be online for the desktop app to work - that's not the case.

Oh, that does sound a lot more reasonable and I made an incorrect assumption. I take it that you still need a phone to make a signal account though?

Yep, at least that's how the official version of the chrome app works at the moment, it offers no standalone option.

Re: Signal Desktop

#237
post #25

I don't understand why it prompts me to invite other people after putting me in line. Why would I email/tweet my friends to join this service if it isn't even ready for me? Seems rude to bother a friend with joining an internet line just so that I can get a better position in the line. I love signal on android and have been looking forward to this, kind of rubs me the wrong way when I'm put in "line"

> kind of rubs me the wrong way when I'm put in "line"

Made even more fun by the fact that unless you spam your friends with a useless link, you get to watch the number of people ahead of you climb.

I started out at ~600, and now I'm at ~1200.

Re: Signal Desktop

#238
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we were going to rank our priorities, they would be in this order: 1) Make mass surveillance impossible. 2) Stop targeted attacks against crypto nerds. It's not that we don't find #2 laudable, but optimizing for #1 takes precedence when we're making decisions. If you don't want to use your phone number, don't use it. You can register with any GV, Twilio, Voicepulse, or other throwaway VoIP number. If you don't wan…

> 1) Make mass surveillance impossible. That's an extremely noble goal, and it seems you've made great progress towards it, but.. Will the US government really just let you do it? Have they not interfered yet? It seems highly unlikely that they wouldn't somehow neutralize the threat your work represents, so I'm just.. cautiously optimistic instead of really excited.

> Will the US government really just let you do it? Have they not interfered yet?

Of course they did: the recent propaganda wave against "encryption" is all about preventing the next wave of privacy-conscious communication tools, to which Signal belongs.

Smart governments don't have to "interfere": they just have to pass laws.

Re: Signal Desktop

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we ever meet I'll buy you a beer for the year of the Linux desktop line. But honestly: I understand mobile support for iOS/Android only. I don't understand Chrome as a platform (FF isn't dead. And the biggest reason for that is that I fail to understand why that client needs to be 'web based' and then again not. A web app in a silo) Mobile numbers.. Why? I mean, if 90% of the population WANT mum to see that they u…

Perhaps Signal just isn't for you. No one who I've introduced signal to has ever had a problem with it. Now if you add a randomly generated 128 bit account identifier, then people WILL have problems with it. Not with you, but with your mum/grandma. I really think Signal might not be for you. Signal is not about building the most secure or private system, it's about building the first mass-market encrypted that that's…

> Not with you, but with your mum/grandma.

Hey, please consider finding a better way to say "the average person" than calling out women and old people as being groups you think of as non-technical. Thanks!

Re: Signal Desktop

#240
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just found it unreliably slow. Principles are all good, but if I message my gf saying "see you at the bus stop in 20 minutes" and she doesn't receive the message for 2 hours, that's majorly annoying and it happened so often I had to leave it. The basic functionality isn't fit for purpose, for me.

Do you have IPv6 in your home network ? Many devices (such as all the Samsung one) stop responding to ICMPv6 packets when in sleep mode (which completely breaks long-running TCP connections over v6), supposedly to save power. This breaks push notifications of every apps using GCM, but there is no way to disable IPv6 without root, and no way to only use GCM over IPv4. I find it mind-blowing that this issue has been kn…

Status: Obsolete Closed: Dec 2014

Sigh.

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