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Signal has been blocked by Venezuela and Russia (www.theverge.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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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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[–] 18 points 2 years ago (7 children)

I wrote this, but I'd also like to add Drew Devault - Why I don't trust signal. There's a huge disconnect between what privacy advocates are saying about signal, and what reddit "privacy" communities think about it. If you read the article I linked, you'll see its because the Open Technology Fund (a US state-run entity), actively pushes signal in privacy spaces.

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  • [+] -7 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Signal is secure and anyone who says it isn't needs to have very strong evidence. It has been audited by hundreds of people at this point.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 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?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years 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.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years 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.

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