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Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

whispersystems.org

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Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#81

Post by biokoda »

venomsnake wrote: post #75
biokoda wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don't. It's not mentioned anywhere on their website.

Who am I to argue. You could use a standard modem software to create a data channel over voice. https://web.archive.org/web/20150303132755/http://www.privat... ZRTP/S ZRTP/S is an extension to ZRTP protocol. It is designed to make ZRTP-secured calls work across Circuit Switched communication channels such as the traditional telephony networks (GSM, CDMA, PSTN, ISDN, etc) where internet protocol is not available. On t…

Their android app description says they need an IP enabled network. GSM is not it. They may have it in their lab, but it's not in a real life useful product. Because it is not possible.

Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#82

Post by moxie »

a3_nm wrote: post #63
newjersey wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It uses Google Cloud Messaging. There needs to be a server in between and I believe GCM is free. Consider a situation where Bobs phone is switched off. Alice sends a message and turns off their phone. Now, Bob turns in their phone. How do we get the message Alice sent to Bob?

Give me some open source code that I can run on my own server to manage the notifications for me and for my friends, and allow me to tell the client app on my phone to use it. That's way better than forcing me to rely on a specific Google server and protocol, which further requires proprietary software on the client.

See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10500188

Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#83

Post by rogerbraun »

verusfossa wrote: post #58

TextSecure used to be on fDroid, then this happened https://f-droid.org/posts/security-notice-textsecure/ . Now it's a GPlay exclusive. I don't have GAPPS so now I can't get it. I'd assume many privacy conscious people don't have GAPPS. I understand the technical hurtles, but it's too big a pill to swallow.

Just use Conversations. It can now use the same protocol and is the best XMPP client there is.

I'm completely baffled that the Textsecure people insist on using the gapps package, which is of course an extreme privacy risk.

Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#84

Post by [deleted] »

moxie wrote: post #80
corney91 wrote: post #2

I really want to start using TextSecure (or Signal now I guess), but the only thing holding me back is it depends on Google Play Services. I love what they're doing and can understand the decision, but still thinks it sucks a bit that the best option for secure communications is so tied into Google.

It seems like you don't want to install Google Play Services on your device. My sense is that this isn't because you find the communication over GCM to be inherently offensive (it's just a tickle, after all), but because you don't want to run proprietary software. There's a very small number of people who find this to be very important, and my experience has been that the strategy is to loudly complain whenever anyth…

[deleted]

Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#85

Post by gothenburg »

moxie wrote: post #80
corney91 wrote: post #2

I really want to start using TextSecure (or Signal now I guess), but the only thing holding me back is it depends on Google Play Services. I love what they're doing and can understand the decision, but still thinks it sucks a bit that the best option for secure communications is so tied into Google.

It seems like you don't want to install Google Play Services on your device. My sense is that this isn't because you find the communication over GCM to be inherently offensive (it's just a tickle, after all), but because you don't want to run proprietary software. There's a very small number of people who find this to be very important, and my experience has been that the strategy is to loudly complain whenever anyth…

There you go:

https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore

An open-source replacement of Google services. You can use Signal with this.

Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#86

Post by moxie »

rogerbraun wrote: post #83
verusfossa wrote: post #58

TextSecure used to be on fDroid, then this happened https://f-droid.org/posts/security-notice-textsecure/ . Now it's a GPlay exclusive. I don't have GAPPS so now I can't get it. I'd assume many privacy conscious people don't have GAPPS. I understand the technical hurtles, but it's too big a pill to swallow.

Just use Conversations. It can now use the same protocol and is the best XMPP client there is. I'm completely baffled that the Textsecure people insist on using the gapps package, which is of course an extreme privacy risk.

See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10500188

Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#87

Post by blub »

moxie wrote: post #79
vox_mollis wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge respect for Moxie, but the requirement of a phone number really is a dealkiller. 1. Phone number requires a service provider 2. Service provider owns the baseband and root of your phone. 3. $government makes a "lawful request" of Verizon et. al. to install keyloggers/screenshotters on your phone. 4. Your "secure" commms are compromised. Signal needs to work on comprehensively rooted devices connected only via wi…

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. It's totally possible for you to install Signal on an iPod touch with a VoIP number, for instance, but that takes more effort than the common case we're des…

Any chance of not requiring access to the whole contact list? I think there are pickers that allow selecting one contact - or better yet, one could allow adding contacts inside Signal.

Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#88

Post by newjersey »

moxie wrote: post #79
vox_mollis wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge respect for Moxie, but the requirement of a phone number really is a dealkiller. 1. Phone number requires a service provider 2. Service provider owns the baseband and root of your phone. 3. $government makes a "lawful request" of Verizon et. al. to install keyloggers/screenshotters on your phone. 4. Your "secure" commms are compromised. Signal needs to work on comprehensively rooted devices connected only via wi…

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. It's totally possible for you to install Signal on an iPod touch with a VoIP number, for instance, but that takes more effort than the common case we're des…

It is a little inconvenient but I have registered for Signal using Google Voice. Much more easily done on iOS than on Android though.

Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#89

Post by rogerbraun »

moxie wrote: post #86
rogerbraun wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use Conversations. It can now use the same protocol and is the best XMPP client there is. I'm completely baffled that the Textsecure people insist on using the gapps package, which is of course an extreme privacy risk.

See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10500188

Thanks for the answer, but if you don't care about this use case, then I think I'll just use a different application that does.

The things I don't like about Signal / Textsecure are:

- Requires Google / Apple services

- No easy way to self host

- Accounts bound to a phone number

- No desktop client ("Being worked on" for months now...)

All these things can be solved for me by using XMPP with Conversations on Android.

So maybe the right thing to do is to stop complaining. Signal / Textsecure is just meant for other people than me.

Re: Signal for Android: RedPhone and TextSecure in one app

#90

Post by throwaway7767 »

venomsnake wrote: post #15

Do they have ZRTP in the baseband of normal GSM call? This is what I have been waiting for.

How would that work? ZRTP defines crypto for RTP. GSM does not use RTP.

It would probably make more sense to define something similar to ZRTP that does all signalling in-band through the audio channel.

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