Why do people assume Signal messenger isn't spying on you? Yes, it has open source code, yes it uses end-to-end encryption. But we can't check which code runs in the version from Google Play or the App Store. And also their APK (IPA) build process is essentially a black box, it doesn't use GitHub Actions or some other transparent build system. I also heard from Techlore that they add a proprietary part to the apk to filter bots. The only thing I can assume is that people scanned the traffic coming from the app (Android), phone (iOS) and checked whether encryption keys were being sent to Signal or not. But it seems to me that this can be also circumvented. What do you think?
P.S. I myself use Signal to communicate with relatives and friends. Definetly not a hater.
Why does Signal need my phone number?
Signal is subject to National Security Letters in the U.S.
Signal received funding from Radio Free Asia owned by the U.S. Agency for Global Media with ties to the CIA.
They seem to have a history of needing quite some time to release the server source code.
Here are some articles to read about Signal:
https://yasha.substack.com/p/signal-is-a-government-op-85e
https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/04/06/it-looks-like-signal-isnt-as-open-source-as-you-thought-it-was-anymore/
https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/8974
@smegforbrains Phone numbers are hashed and then used as an identifier. The Hash cannot be used to figure out the original data. NSA letters are useless as they only have sign up and last connection times.