this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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Signal is just a company selling privacy (self.technology)
submitted 2 years ago by gthutbwdy to c/technology@lemmy.world
75 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Signal is a centralized app, run by a company. If they are offered enough money or legal threat they will sell out or close.

I am sure people will make an argument that its FOSS and people will just fork it if it goes bad, but a new fork will have 0 users and Signal will still have all of your old contacts. Why not make a switch now? Before it is even more popular and you have more reasons to stay? Why fork it if there are already decentralized apps that use same encryption, like XMPP apps?

Sure you can find flaws in every app, including XMPP implementations, but if we will have to write code for a new Signal fork, why not just fix whatever is that bugs you in XMPP clients?

If you want to use Matrix, that is fine as well, we can always bridge the two open protocols. But you cant bridge Signal if their company doesn't allow it.

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[–] Mountaineer@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago (11 children)

That single point of failure is to facilitate ease of use, with minimal reduction in security.
The messages are e2e encrypted and the server is designed in such a way that attempting to listen in would bring it down.
The signal org doesn't even have your address book.

If your concern is "I don't like signal", you're not going to make much traction.

[–] gthutbwdy 4 points 2 years ago (9 children)

Briar is an app that is just as easy to use, plus you dont need a phone number, so it is easier. Yet it has no point of failure and it was simpler to write. It is P2P, uses tor, you dont get better privacy and security than that.

You dont know what their server is running, you cant prove that. They can release the code, but you have to trust them that they are running that exact code.

Ease of use is an excuse, they have a centralized model. That is a big flaw. There is more to security then E2E, xmpp clients have E2E as well, they use the same algorithm.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

SimpleX also seems pretty promising and is more cross platform than briar. I'm self-hosting a server for my immediate family.

[–] gthutbwdy 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think XMPP is more well-known than SimpleX, I simply mentioned Briar for the sake of possible ease of use argument over some XMPP clients.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Could be. I was just giving another alternative. I've had better luck with both SimpleX and briar than some of the other options I've tested.

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