Let's hope they'll be able to continue to use it. It (and all other messengers with proper E2EE) is already on track to be outlawed in Sweden and France, and the new government in Germany will be pro mass-surveillance, too.
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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Privacy
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Moral of the story? Use ~~selfhostable~~ decentralized messaging instead.
No way in hell my relatives are going to use a messenger I selfhosted. My brother doesn't even use Signal for whatever reason, even though even my grandmother has it.
That is the problem of getting another person to change something... A very valid problem but not inherent to decentralization.
Kinda is, though - regular people have a lot more trust in centralized services, and Signal has a very large userbase compared to anything selfhostable. And IME they really, really hate installing new messengers.
Plus, selfhosted E2EE would still be just as illegal as Signal. Many people won't be willing to participate in illegal activity, and if you just don't use E2EE on your selfhosted solution the usefulness seems rather dubious.
I don't think any ban on such selfhostable servers is enforceable at all.
It doesn't necessarily have to be enforcable to deter most people. At minimum, with such a ban there's zero chance to communicate with government agencies with E2EE.
well in the end it's just HTTPS traffic.. police has to search your phone to know if you are a user.
but if you federate (on clearnet), that could give away that you host it
Well, technically, they could MITM the traffic similarly to how they did to jabber . ru. But a) there are mitigations for this and b) more importantly - they would need to bother. No one's going to bother doing it to a random family server that has attracted no previous attention.
What if the government shuts off the app source (and source code) and makes it illegal for anyone to download or redistribute it?
We have never come across one that is as easy to use as Signal and has no problems with encryption, either that it can have its encryption turned off, it breaks easily or that it makes dubious claims with few-no audits to back them up.
Plus the common person enjoys the fun features of Signal or other easy messengers, most decentralised messages do not have these features, are indefinitely working on them or make them not as easy to use, leading to most being uninterested in those messengers.
We have tried most if not all of them, than most and they are definitely lacking as much as we wish they were not. Decentralised encrypted (or partially encrypted) messengers always seem to have problems whether it's with their encryption, moderation tools, connectivity or the lack of other features.
My dad just said in the WhatsApp group, why not move to signal. I tried moving friends and family before, but now that there has been anti meta media reports in some news sources. But especially reports on signal in almost every major newspaper and news source.
It seems not only a push because of privacy, but even more a anti big tech(especially us tech) and buy/use eu stuff push.
I don't mind the push I'm just curious if people stay on signal. Previous time there was a push to signal (during whatsapp technical difficulties and privacy push) people quickly want back to whatsapp.
Now my volunteer work, 1 friend and a family chat already moved to signal. The only thing I did was some explaining that you can just send images and so on. (That it's not something scary)
What are the major differences between what you can do on Whatsapp vs Signal?
Whatsapp let's you donate your contact list and social network to meta for them to resell.
Source?
It requires access to your contacts to work on Android. That is, you cannot type in a phone number. That's an intentional choice.
Oh, that's yucky. Thanks for the information, we haven't used it since it got bought by Facebook.
The only real differences we can think of is:
Whatsapp unlike Signal doesn't have usernames meaning a phone number must be used to contact others on it, and that Whatsapp's report feature shares the unencrypted message and surrounding messages with Meta to give context for the report.
it is just a messaging app, legit the exact same. group chats, image and video, previews to links i send, it even has a way higher level of customisability that i haven't found elsewhere.
A lot of VPN servers in Netherlands may have something to do with it.....
Why? Because the Dutch national broadcasters keep plugging it as an alternative to Whatsapp.
Aside... Two apps keep getting mentioned as alternatives, Signal and Element/Matrix, but in MHRO both are not viable as replacements.
Signal: still a US app, CIA funded, provides their encryption backbone to Whatsapp, recommended by governments & FBI. Matrix/Element: Developed in Israel, with ties to IDF, preferred by NATO (NI2CE)
you’re spreading lies lies lies FUD
Other than people you don't like living in the world here with us, do you have any proof of anything actually nefarious done by signal or matrix?
Signal is funded by the CIA now ? And I thought Element is in the UK?
I guess this means we're not switching to RCS then?
RCS is not an open standard
Not to mention only available on certain phone brands and certain carriers (where I am, only one of major four).
I use Telegram, like betamax have I backed the wrong horse?
Holy shit... Yes, yes you have.
Hah, thanks. I had no idea it was Russian backed. I dropped it over the weekend. The only issue is I'm now solely on WhatsApp as none of my friends/family are behind this movement.