this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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Privacy

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"Signal is being blocked in Venezuela and Russia. The app is a popular choice for encrypted messaging and people trying to avoid government censorship, and the blocks appear to be part of a crackdown on internal dissent in both countries..."

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[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Source: trust me bro.

Seriously tho, that's been most of the defense of signal advocates, with zero backup other than signal's own claims. Signal is not self-hostable, and all the data lives on a centralized, US-domiciled server, subject to NSL requests (the US issues ~ 60 of them per day).

Unfortunately you can't verify what their server stores, nor the metadata that they are legally required to share with the US government (which includes phone numbers, and your name and address).

BTW if signal is secure, can you give us your phone number, so we can use it with you?

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

Signal is end to end encrypted. Everything related to encryption happens inside the app. It doesn't matter if the server is in mainland China it would still be secure. However, that doesn't mean it is anonymous. Signal is pretty bad from that perspective.

[–] ivn@jlai.lu -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You don't need the phone number to contact someone with Signal.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wrong, you need a phone number to create a signal account.

[–] ivn@jlai.lu -1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yes, to create an account, but not to contact someone. You have an habit of being off the mark.

Also there is a difference between giving your phone number to some service and giving it to some random on the internet.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They must've added that recently then, but still doesn't get around the fact that they're required, which means signal (and likely the US government) knows exactly who you talk to and when.