Accelerate to the future. Privacy is fundamental.

  • nutomic@lemmy.ml
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    4 years ago

    The problem with Signal is that its from the United States, which means the have to follow the orders of CIA and other agencies. Telegram doesn’t have that problem.

    • poVoq@lemmy.ml
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      4 years ago

      I agree, as I wrote elsewhere. But this could be mitigated against if Signal would allow 3rd party clients and externally compiled clients (on fdroid for example). But they have been openly hostile to this (with IMHO very weak arguments), so that disqualifies them in my view.

      • xenobottle@lemmy.mlOP
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        4 years ago

        thanks for the feedback, i went reading that and reviewed the webpage i think i was too messianic about signal, so i left signal as the first suggestion, but invite the reader to explore the complexity of the topic

    • fra@lemmy.ml
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      4 years ago

      I’m also worried they don’t provide any warning to users that use the default GBoard keyboard, which sends pretty much everything you type to Google (or has the ability to do that).

    • xenobottle@lemmy.mlOP
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      4 years ago

      that’s a good point. how could one improve that? might someone offer a location for the signal team to move in another country?

      • nutomic@lemmy.ml
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        4 years ago

        I doubt that’s going to happen. In the medium and long term, I think that Matrix will be the best solution, but its gonna take more time for it to be fully usable. So for now we have to make compromises.

        • Nevar@lemmy.ml
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          4 years ago

          To that point I’m not sure why Threema or Telegram aren’t being considered more seriously as they don’t fall in US jurisdiction.

          • nutomic@lemmy.ml
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            4 years ago

            The mobile app seems more focused on group chats than something like whatsapp or telegram, which makes it a bit more complicated to use. Also, sometimes I still get decryption errors so certain messages are unreadable.

      • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
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        4 years ago

        Session, Status and maybe Spixi are good alternative but they are all too young in my opinion. Session is the best concept, though.

    • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
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      4 years ago

      Well, that doesn’t really matter since they don’t store anything, so if they would get subpoenaed they couldn’t give anything of value. If laws change and they force to have backdoors, well, that’s another story but until then that’s not a valid argument.

      • nutomic@lemmy.ml
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        4 years ago

        The problem is that their app is only distributed through the Google and Apple app stores, so for the average users its impossible if what they install actually matches the source code. And they dont allow distribution through F-Droid (which compiles directly from source). An agency like the CIA could easily serve a malicious Signal update to a specific user.

        • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
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          4 years ago

          I think that the CIA would do that with very specific people, it’s not like it’s going to be wasting attacks at random, and that people should probably download the .apk from Signal’s website or use something more anonymous, like Briar.

          • nutomic@lemmy.ml
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            4 years ago

            We dont know that, and personally I wont take the chance. Downloading from their website is even more insecure by the way,

          • fidibus@lemmy.161.social
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            4 years ago

            They would do that with specific people, but atm it’s just safer to not use a smartphone at all if you think you are a target for that kind of thing - telegram for sure isn’t better

      • fidibus@lemmy.161.social
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        4 years ago

        counter argument: Signal is from the US and they have to follow the orders of agencies, but they are an american company. Telegram is in russia and free real estate for the american overfunded three letter agencies who I am sure are collecting every shitty not-encrypted telegram message.

        • nutomic@lemmy.ml
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          4 years ago

          They say that over 250 US companies and government agencies were hacked by Russia in the Solarwinds breach, so I wouldnt be so sure about this “free real estate”. But of course you are free to disagree, and free to choose the messenger that you prefer.