hi I'm new to this whole privacy stuff. Is anyone using Signal (messaging) APK? Is it advisable to read the entire privacy policy of apps that i use. I find it time consuming and confusing coz apps collect information about me from other sources too Is it necessary to protect my privacy? Should i start living like a hermit using a dumb phone or sending postal letters to communicate with others?
@cjleads hi welcome!
I think signal recently leaked user data.
The only ones I trust are p2p decentralized with encryption myself but that's just me 🤗📶
@TheDoctor @cjleads @Wetrix i've not heard of Signal directly leaking data, but leaks are incidental in all the dodgy surveillance capitalists Signal entails. More details here: https://github.com/privacytoolsIO/privacytools.io/issues/779
@resist1984 @cjleads @Wetrix I'm afraid I don't agree at all with the assessment in this post. Comparing signal with surveillance capitalism à la Facebook and Google hardly seems fair.
@TheDoctor @Wetrix @cjleads you have no choice but to agree with the facts - unless you have counter facts. OWS #Signal subjects users to a variety of surveillance capitalist mechanisms by forcing phone number registration & pushing Google Playstore (while hiding & discouraging apk downloads).. pushing #CloudFlare.. financing #Amazon.. working for #Facebook.
@resist1984 @Wetrix @cjleads I don't dispute those facts but there are reasons for that, not all of which are malicious. You don't have to use it if you don't like it but I still think some of these issues are overblown.
@Wetrix @cjleads @TheDoctor in this sense, it's similar to Facebook. I choose not to have a Facebook account, and Facebook chooses not to accept me as a user (I don't meet FB's registration requirements). So I'm excluded from that community. As that community grows, the exclusion becomes more detrimental to the excluded group because more ppl interact with the false assumption that everyone is included.
@resist1984 @cjleads @Wetrix Yes I agree. Unfortunately, it's hard enough already to get people to even switch away from WhatsApp so I consider basically everything an improvement
@TheDoctor @Wetrix @cjleads Signal isn't a suitable intermediate step because it actually brings in many unnecessary surveillance mechanisms. If you need a middle step that works for low-tech users, #Wire & #Jami are a better choice b/c they do not impose phone number registration. They give an e2ee payload without excluding people who don't have mobile phones).
@resist1984
@TheDoctor @Wetrix @cjleads
My take is use #session msgr when its more mature. fork of #signal, uses signal #encryption, no #phone or #email required, #decentralised, #onion routed using #Loki network, no phone required for desktop, linkable to other devices for syncing
@TheDoctor @cjleads @Wetrix the problem is that the privacy abuses don't just affect the user b/c this is not a service that someone uses in a vaccuum. It's inherently collaborative. So one person's need to correspond with another entails pressure on others to participate in a centralized walled-garden that feeds pernicious entities. So it's important to discourage the spread of it.