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Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

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Re: Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

#341

Post by m12k »

cvburgess wrote: post #283
jwr wrote: post #168

What really hurts Signal are two things: * sub-par user experience: WhatsApp is just nicer and smoother, and people tend to like that * very few people understand that Signal DOES NOT get your full contact list, while Facebook (through WhatsApp) does Especially the second point is very relevant with the current situation — you do not necessarily want to expose your entire social graph to Facebook. But so few people u…

> WhatsApp is just nicer and smoother, and people tend to like that Ive used both for a while and WhatsApp is aweful, at least on iOS by all standards I can find. Signal feels like iMessage with reactions, voice recordings, and handy tools. WhatsApp feels dated, clunky, and for groups it gets very very messy fast with out reactions.

IMO Telegram has the nicest ux of them all, but Signal is finally good enough

Re: Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

#342

Post by sorenjan »

nix23 wrote: post #246
romanr wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telegram indeed have better UX and same level of e2e security. Why Signal is getting all the publicity?

Telegram is not opensource, Signal is...and yes you can setup your own server with Signal. Why trust a Closed-source-Software? Do you even know that it is encrypted?

https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram

https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop

Re: Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

#343

Post by mackrevinack »

atoav wrote: post #50
enraged_camel wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would ditch WhatsApp in a heartbeat if Signal had a browser client.

In my opinion Desktop Clients > Browser Clients when it comes to messengers. If you have more than ten tabs open it is annoying to always have to switch tabs or break out a window. Having a desktop application that remembers where you want to save stuff people send you is a plus too.

our even worse if you browser is closed and you have to open it and load 30+ tabs just to send a message on signal

Re: Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

#344

Post by wayoutthere »

AnonC wrote: post #95
matheusmoreira wrote: post #2

I hope one day apps like Signal will be the default for everyone , not just protesters in a time of crisis.

I don't think that's a great idea until Signal stops exposing the phone number of the user to everyone else (for all the bashing that Telegram gets on cryptography, it has mechanisms to hide one's phone number and even the fact that one has a Telegram account from others).

The hardcore anarchists have been using cash burners from day 1. But I'm seeing more people in the "concerned citizen" category taking this route too.

Re: Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

#345

Post by nix23 »

fsflover wrote: post #325
nix23 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telegram is not opensource, Signal is...and yes you can setup your own server with Signal. Why trust a Closed-source-Software? Do you even know that it is encrypted?

You can setup your own server with Signal, but you will not participate in the same network, so this is not really relevant.

For Country's or big-business it is relevant

Re: Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

#346

Post by nix23 »

sorenjan wrote: post #342
nix23 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telegram is not opensource, Signal is...and yes you can setup your own server with Signal. Why trust a Closed-source-Software? Do you even know that it is encrypted?

https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop

THAT is not the server, its like saying Firefox is opensource so Facebook is too, thanks and no thanks for the link's.

Re: Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

#348

Post by cyphar »

nix23 wrote: post #259
cyphar wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the whole point of OTR-like messaging was that you can communicate with someone who you can't be entirely sure you trust in perpetuity (that's why messages in Signal and similar systems don't have non-repudiation -- neither party can prove to a third party that a message really was sent by the other party). Now, obviously the metadata worry is separate to how the message cryptography is implemented but it does…

But with signal you can verify that person, its like the opposite of otr. https://signal.org/blog/safety-number-updates/

OTR also allows you to do key verification -- all encrypted chat systems support that. The point isn't that you cannot be sure who you're talking to, the point is that the communication transcript cannot be provided to a third party as evidence that either party in the conversation said something.

This is fairly simply implemented in OTR. Rather than signing the message with an asymmetric keypair (as you would with PGP), you sign it with a HMAC. Thus both the sender and recipient could create a valid message from the sender (giving you the property that only the two people in the conversation can be sure what was actually said by the other party, without being able to prove it to a third party cryptographically).

Re: Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

#349

Post by jrochkind1 »

Loughla wrote: post #332
mehrdadn wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but understand that if a police officer is talking to you, they're digging for information to incriminate you Are you sure you're not exaggerating? I've totally seen incidents where cops were only talking to see if they've even found the right person. They lose interest pretty damn quickly when they realize they're talking to the wrong person (even to the point of rejecting extra evidence you might offer yourself).…

In my experience, no, I am not exaggerating. In my run-ins with police, they had no clear suspect, so everyone was a suspect. In one case, they questioned me, and had me go through a polygraph test. They didn't inform me of my rights to an attorney, because I was not formally arrested. They also did all of this without legal representation or parents (I was 16). They did it just to be able to tell me that I failed, a…

They could very well have been lying to you about failing the polygraph test too. They are legally allowed to lie to you.

Of course, they can arrest you even if you don't talk to them. It's ultimately up them whether to arrest you, not to you. You don't necessarily get out of getting arrested by not talking to them. (If they say you can get out of getting arrested by talking to them, they can be lying!). But you make it much worse by talking to them.

Re: Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption

#350

Post by im3w1l »

thu2111 wrote: post #330
im3w1l wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That didn't stop [facebook] blocking people from forwarding links related to coronavirus. Source?

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=facebook+whatsapp+covid+forwarding... Pick any version of the story. Or read their blog post: https://blog.whatsapp.com/Keeping-WhatsApp-Personal-and-Priv... How do they know a message is forwarded? The encryption is meant to make identical plaintexts encrypt to different ciphertexts, so obviously they must be leaking the forwarding status in unencrypted parts of the message. And why is an e…

I see. Given this clarification, I would argue that your original claim was misleading.
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