this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2026
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Privacy
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Signal I think. I don't mean that the end2end algorithm or messaging itself are itself unsafe, the algo has been shown to be secure. This is what people usually rebuke this with, with the reminder of Signal's OSS nature.
The issue the servers and the social networking data that can be harvested. The server code only partially exists in public and we just have to trust that that is actually what is running on whatever AWS server without tampering and self hosting is nearly impossible in practice if technically possible and nobody does it. The social network data (who talks to who) is more valuable than the actual messages logs, which give a massive, but mainly useless datasets. Until LLMs, like 10-15 years ago they were basically impossible to parse for any useful info without using large quantities of eye pairs. Basically if you are an organizer, criminal, government, part of a hunted opposition, you will leak the whole core group structure of your org with attached phone numbers. Whoever with that data can then target their devices and persons with other means. Plus it's literally built on top of CIA money. I think signal is totally safe and adequate for friends and family type of use, but not much else, but then all in all so is whatsapp, mostly since signal and Whattsapp share the same end to end algorithm.
Signal is def one, otherwise US government orgs like RFA and OTS wouldn't be defending and pushing for it so hard in western privacy spaces, nor fund it.
Have a look at Deltachat
Its starting to make headway: FOSS, Decentralised and anyone who is tech inclined can setup their own Relay.
It's funny how every poster who criticizes Signal inevitably makes a technical error. In your case, the claim that "Basically if you are an organizer, criminal, government, part of a hunted opposition, you will leak the whole core group structure of your org with attached phone numbers" entirely lacks basis. The Signal client - the OSS part we can and do control - does not divulge phone numbers.
You have this theory that Signal's servers are storing communication records. (While there is no evidence to support this, it's valuable to consider what they could do.) So the data that would be captured here is a network of hashed phone numbers and literally undecryptable messages. It's impossible for the adversary to determine any phone numbers they don't already know this way.
And since you can make a Signal account with a burner phone and create a "username", even a known phone number becomes useless against targets who don't want to be identified.
Signal doesn't run in a vacuum. It's main distribution platforms are app stores from Google and Apple. And most people are going to use stock smartphones from these two companies to sign up to Signal. But with them being under the same US jurisdiction, matching the two identities isn't that far-fetched.
The parent companies of both OS platforms are well known to funnel data and notifications to the US government. It too had no evidence to support it, until they admitted it. There's a setting for it now, but the person you're talking to might not be doing the same, so it's still out for profiling.
Other thing, they vehemently oppose F-Droid because "f-droid security flaws" bs, even though they can literally host their own repo for it without anyone else building their app. They would control every aspect of supply chain, but they didn't.
Besides that, they make it very inconvenient to get it from elsewhere, even though they did the bare minimum to provide a standalone installer, after an outcry. And with those stripped down installers, you have to deal with inconsistent notifications, because no apple/google. And they never ever gave unified push a look. I wonder why? Are they a small indie company with just a couple of devs?
Signal protocol may be "secure", but it's only a part of a bigger picture.
It's forced reliance on phone numbers, privacy averted platforms and unwillingness to work with opensource platforms and standards that lets it become decentralized and out of the hands of authoritarian government, leaves a lot to be desired.
Facebook's whatsapp also uses the signal protocol, but would you call it private or secure after all that zuck has shown to do? Signal creator literally helped them implement it too. I wouldn't touch a Facebook product with a 10 feet pole.
And now he's helping them again encrypt Meta AI, whatever that means. Why is he working with one of the worst offenders of privacy?
If that doesn't tell you these things are concerning, you do you.
https://lemmy.ml/post/48427945
All speculation. You gave them your phone number (which also means your real identity), so you should assume they have it. And because its a US-based company, it must adhere to US laws including key disclosure laws, which make it illegal for any signal employee to tell you that any US government has asked for this information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_security_letter
With this data you can build social networking graphs: who is talking to who, and when.
Also this is all the more suspect when you consider that US military / government agencies like OTF fund signal, and constantly try to push signal in privacy spaces.
The point is that they could. We are discussing honeypots here. They don't advertise the fact if they are.
Be the phone numbers hashed/encrypted or not they will still get your ip. They are not routing anybody's messages otherwise. Phone number is just more directly tied to a personal details, unless it's a burner, but with burners you lose the account if you need to log in. Also you can set your phone number public, so it probably can be seen by the signal servers at some point. And what about discovery through phone number and like the actual sending of the signal confirmation code? How is any that suppose to work if the servers don't know your actual phone number? And your anonymity trick only works if everybody you talk to does it, which they don't. If they want to profile you they can profile you directly or through the people you talk with. If the people you are trying to hide from don't care about getting message logs and just association with some group is punishable or can lead to punishment or death then tough luck.
And you miss the main point. practically speaking you cant self host a signal server, therefore you can't trust it fully (in a way 'fully' matters anyway). if you do it's unsupported and not recommended and you probably need a custom client to access it. That added with it being under American jurisdictions, and Signal starting as a spook project should really set off alarm bells.