Matrix, xmpp, simplex. Do not use Signal or any service with centralized servers hosted in a 5 eyes country.

Chinese company uses servers located in China. More news at 11.

Lemmy has nothing in its code that blocks VPNs. Unfortunately a lot of instances use cloudflare and other man-in-the-middle services that do block VPNs.

Syncthing, its a self-run dropbox. Apps for every platform.

Then you can use whatever editors on any device you like. Markor is a good open source one for android.

I don’t doubt it. Those NSLs would have returned zero information from Signal because, as Signal has repeatedly demonstrated, and I have repeatedly stated, they don’t have any information to share.

Part of the stipulation of NSL’s, is that its illegal to disclose that you’ve been issued one. You are gagged, and you can’t even criticize that gagging publicly, or you will face criminal charges. You can read more about that here: https://www.eff.org/issues/national-security-letters

Not my name, email, birthdate, nothing.

Your phone number is already linked to all that info. I, even as a private person, could type in your phone number right now and get all that information about you in seconds. So you can stop saying “my phone number doesn’t have that information”, because it 100% does. And signal stores it as their primary identifier.

Again, if you really believe what you’re saying, you’ll give me your phone number, and the phone numbers of your friends. If this is a secure identifier, that contains none of the information above, then why not? Put up or shut up.

They still require a phone number to sign up, and its a US domiciled company (5-eyes country), so its inherently unsafe. The obama administration issued an average of 60 national security letters every single day of his administration.

If your answer is “I don’t think signal is giving my phone number to the US government”, then why do you have to “trust” signal to not do that? Actually private chat apps don’t ask for identifying information like phone numbers, then say “trust us”, like apple or something.

Lets use your favorite privacy app to communicate. Give me your phone number.

That doesn’t make much sense. With a single piece of info, your phone number, I can learn hundreds of things about you. It’s one of the most linkable identifiers out there.

Every chat platform has some sort of unique identifier, other than SimpleX.

Of course, which is why its super-important that the id not be linked to your real identity.

Here’s a test: I’ll give you my matrix id, and you give me your phone number. Deal?

zero information connected to your phone number.

A phone number is tied to your real identity in most countries, especially the US. This is why phone number leaks are so dangerous, I can probably find your current and past addresses, friends, family, social media, all with just your phone number.

No probs!

I don’t know enough about grapeneOS to comment on it.

Any signal app forks still have to use signals main servers, so they still got your phone number and identity.

Matrix was originally funded by an Israeli company until it spun off, but unlike signal, it’s entirely open source, self-hostable, and can be run in a private manner. Phone numbers and identifiers are not required, so even if you connect to a malicious server, the most they get is your matrix id, and things you’ve explicitly leaked about your identity.

The most we could say is that specific servers are compromised, but its also possible to host it outside a five-eyes country, unlike signal.

What’s funny is this is pretty out in the open, and ppl don’t realize it. When Yasha Levine criticized signal, the president of Radio Free Asia (a US government propaganda org), sent this out, openly pushing Signal to european internet freedom communities:

Our primary interest is to make sure the extended OTF network and the Internet Freedom community are not spooked by the [Yasha Levine’s] article (no pun intended). Fortunately all the major players in the community are together in Valencia this week - and report out from there indicates they remain comfortable with OTF/RFA.

And I remember you mentioned before, Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, holds interviews with US defense-department think tanks.

Matrix, simplex, xmpp.

I wrote a longer one here: https://dessalines.github.io/essays/why_not_signal.html

The short version is, that it’s a centralized, US hosted service. All of those are subject to National Security Letters, and so are inherently compromised. Even if we accept that the message content is secure, then signal’s reliance on phone numbers (and in the US, a phone number is connected to your real identity and even current address), means that the US government has social connection graphs: everyone who uses signal, who they talk to, and when.

Aren’t they the same now?

• He couldn’t possibly know they’d go for that.
• Grifters don’t always think things like this through.
• A surprising # of people would probably willingly take the death penalty to get 15 minutes of fame, especially for an action as popular as this was.

I personally don’t think he did it. He could easily be a grifter trying to take credit for a very popular act. There’s no shortage of those. All you’d need to do:

• Walk into a public place with a bag of somewhat incriminating items, but nothing that’s linked to the actual crime scene.
• Arouse enough suspicion to get the cops called on you. Being a white guy with black hair and a hoodie is not enough for someone to call the cops on you, I have no idea why people believe that was enough for a McD’s employee to call the cops.
• Claim credit for the shooting to the cops.
• Bonus points - Have a social media history praising similar actions.

The altoona cops then forwarded this to the NYPD, who were desperate to pin this on someone, after they messed up and let the shooter slip through their fingers. Out of the all the tips, this was the best one they’d gotten so far, so they’re running with it now.

This also explains why Luigi’s taking credit for some, but not all of the claims the police made (especially about the money he was supposedly carrying).

Your word against theirs, and they can easily say they saw something suspicious. That’s how it works with every stop and search.

Nice, that looks legit.

At least in most US cities, it’s also illegal to sleep in your car. You’re pry fine in the netherlands.