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Signal Foundation

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Re: Signal Foundation

#251

Post by giancarlostoro »

mapgrep wrote: post #71

This is very very good news. As a heavy Signal user, from where I sit I personally see the following clear needs: -Better group support. Right now, to do a group in Signal you have to name the group, which makes it kind of a pain to create ad hoc quick groups. I'm forever naming them "John Sue Bill" or "Jane Roger Amanda". iMessage, by contrast, just automatically makes a group without a name. You get a thread for th…

Absolutely there with you on full text search. The only way is to ... export in plain text my text messages. If only we could export it in a secure manner and have the export also encrypted and be prompted for an encryption password on import. That would be awesome!

I think Group Video would be interesting but I personally don't do video on Signal, nor did I have a hint that it supported this? I thought it was just audio?

Even so it would equally be amazing if they could improve the usage of a Desktop client and / or maybe allow for Tablet support? I don't want to run my texts through Google Chrome, I rather run them through a more stripped down Chrome (Electron, but it shouldn't be too much different!) that wont be randomly phoning home to Google or require me to open up a browser I rarely use outside of work.

I really would love to see Signal work without phone numbers at some point (email as an alternative would open up Signal for Tablets - really wish Signal worked on Tablets) but I may not know enough about the existing structure to know how feasible this is or isn't.

I think you hit the nail on the head about email though. If the Signal Foundation is serious about making encryption accessible by all I think their next big focus should be:

* Making something that allows table usage of encrypted messaging (wondering if they signed something with Facebook and Co that disallows Signal to run elsewhere?) * Make email encryption painless and straight forward, whether they build their own mail client and plugins (please make this AND mandatory no exceptions) or they make plugins for all major mail clients, especially Thunderbird.

Re: Signal Foundation

#252

Post by amedvednikov »

throwaway613834 wrote: post #200
amedvednikov wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will be open-sourced at some point within the next 2 years without a doubt. Like I explained in the FAQ, the plans and the potential are huge, and it would be really silly to risk it all just to become another data miner. Even if it's very sophisticated, and there's a 0.01% change it's found out, why risk everything? Besides, it's simply illegal. All the information about me and the company is public. I wonder if…

> I wonder if you have the same concerns about other closed source software like Sublime Text. This was an unnecessary personal jab, but I'll respond. Sublime? I don't use it. Software that deals with my credentials just like you do? Yeah, I definitely do. That's why I don't trust closed source password managers either. Text editors? Mine are open source so the thought has never crossed my mind. Other random software…

This was not meant to be a jab, sorry if it came out that way. English is not my native language.

I was genuinely interested, and I expected this answer. This is a very valid point of view. I hope you'll use it once it's open-sourced.

Re: Signal Foundation

#253

Post by amdavidson »

Stanish wrote: post #205
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it odd that someone would say an iPhone is “very insecure” after the USG, of all players, very publicly couldn’t get into a model from right before the security design hardened , not to mention the also very public panic in the IC about losing access to intelligence due to mobile phone developments. That’s a strange position to tout with the underlying implication that PC platforms are better. Are you broadeni…

Ever ask yourself why they did this "very publicly"?

To convince congress to legislate a backdoor.

There are very logical and reasonable reasons for them to advocate publicly. Not everything is a conspiracy.

Re: Signal Foundation

#254

Post by nickik »

Zhyl wrote: post #241
nickik wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keybase is not really a social network. It feels much more like a sort PKI with a Slack client on top of it. The focus seems very much on Teams. However they could go into more of a social network direction, the features are basically there.

Keybase is an amazing idea which seems to be trapped by the current zeitgeist. It implements smooth and intuitive PKI via a command line, a mobile app and a web/electron app and seem to be rolling it out as a slack and/or dropbox alternative which are pretty solid use cases. The downsides are that it has a very cartoony 'silicon valley' type feel which is great for early adopters, but will be a significant barrier to…

> The downsides are that it has a very cartoony 'silicon valley' type feel which is great for early adopters

I feel like once they want to role it out to companies its frailly easy to change these things.

> There would be great call for generic group management.

They have subgroups, so that's something.

Re: Signal Foundation

#255

Post by [deleted] »

jakebasile wrote: post #123
mapgrep wrote: post #71

This is very very good news. As a heavy Signal user, from where I sit I personally see the following clear needs: -Better group support. Right now, to do a group in Signal you have to name the group, which makes it kind of a pain to create ad hoc quick groups. I'm forever naming them "John Sue Bill" or "Jane Roger Amanda". iMessage, by contrast, just automatically makes a group without a name. You get a thread for th…

I'd love to use Signal, but in order for me to do so there's a lot that has to be added. - Real multi device support. I want my messages on all my devices, without having to have my phone on. - An iPad app. - A desktop app. I'd pay for a native one, without Electron. These things are basically table stakes for competing with Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and iMessage. If Signal's goal is to bring encryption to the ma…

[deleted]

Re: Signal Foundation

#256

Post by jameshart »

lsc wrote: post #212
jameshart wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“they almost certainly use and appreciate federated systems like phones and email” Two channels which have become saturated with spam and junk once the federated network starts to include players who are willing to permit bad actors to access the network in exchange for money. People enjoy federated networks of regulated, good faith players; wide open federated networks tend towards anarchy.

>People enjoy federated networks of regulated, good faith players; wide open federated networks tend towards anarchy. Like... email and the phone system? both of those have huge amounts of bad actors and spam, and people still use them as primary means of communication. Email and phone are generally expected to be more reliable, I think, than any of the walled garden communication protocols. (Speaking of, if you have…

I'm explicitly questioning "people still use them as primary means of communication"

Really? Even internal company phone systems have largely switched over to walled garden voip or videocalling systems in most places I've seen. Nobody calls anybody any more - the only use of phones I see is for dialling in to conference bridges. Email is used internally within businesses.

What do people really still use public phones and email for?

Re: Signal Foundation

#257

Post by lorenzhs »

mightybyte wrote: post #163

This is great news. Now maybe they'll have the resources to ditch your phone number as your identity. Traveling overseas is really frustrating when you get a new sim card and your Signal identity changes.

You don't need to re-register Signal when you pop in a different SIM card. I've successfully used it abroad with a foreign SIM card without issue. Of course people won't be able to add you by any phone number other than the one you used to set it up, but that's hardly a concern when travelling.

Re: Signal Foundation

#258

Post by Kihashi »

TuringTest wrote: post #215
lsc wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People enjoy federated networks of regulated, good faith players; wide open federated networks tend towards anarchy. Like... email and the phone system? both of those have huge amounts of bad actors and spam, and people still use them as primary means of communication. Email and phone are generally expected to be more reliable, I think, than any of the walled garden communication protocols. (Speaking of, if you have…

At least in my country, incoming call filters do wonders, in particular those which query the incoming number at an online database to show you who's the caller.

Not sure about elsewhere, but in the US, it is possible to spoof phone numbers. The only way to verify that the person you are talking to is actually associated with the number is to hang up and call them back. This is particularly a problem for companies like banks and insurance.

Android actually does provide some amount of filtering[1], but if someone, say, spoofs a seemingly legitimate number, it will come through fine.

[1]: https://www.androidpolice.com/2016/07/25/googles-phone-app-n...

Re: Signal Foundation

#259

Post by Kihashi »

mapgrep wrote: post #71

This is very very good news. As a heavy Signal user, from where I sit I personally see the following clear needs: -Better group support. Right now, to do a group in Signal you have to name the group, which makes it kind of a pain to create ad hoc quick groups. I'm forever naming them "John Sue Bill" or "Jane Roger Amanda". iMessage, by contrast, just automatically makes a group without a name. You get a thread for th…

> -Better group support.

To go along with that-- Support for exporting group messages. I recently moved to a new phone. With the latest versions of signal on android, I had to export a plain text backup of my messages. The problem? All the group messages were removed from their groups and threaded into the individual conversations with the person who sent it. So not only did it ruin the group message, but it also ruined the individual conversations, too.

I ended up downgrading to an older version of signal, creating an android backup of the data and then copying that to my new phone.

Re: Signal Foundation

#260

Post by mtgx »

rrdharan wrote: post #4
mtgx wrote: post #2

When is the ICO? No, I'm not kidding. Look at Telegram. Who would've thought an open source project would ever get close to a billion dollars in funding ? I don't want Signal to wither away or forever remain a niche chat application because of lack of funding, especially if Moxie one day decides he wants to pursue some other dreams of his and doesn't have time to deal with Signal anymore.

This seems like a much better setup - $50M and setup as a 501(c)3 - rather than taking on the weird regulatory risk and all the other weirdness associated with Telegram's (IMO crazy) ICO: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2018/02/17/teleg...

I watched the recent hearing on cryptocurrency. The SEC guy seemed to suggest that ICOs need to "register with the SEC" as a security. If they do that and talk to SEC how to best do this, then I think they would be fine?

I think Filecoin did something similar.

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