Greetings!
A friend of mine wants to be more secure and private in light of recent events in the USA.
They originally told me they were going to use telegram, in which I explained how Telegram is considered compromised, and Signal is far more secure to use.
But they want more detailed explanations then what I provided verbally. Please help me explain things better to them! ✨
I am going to forward this thread to them, so they can see all your responses! And if you can, please cite!
Thank you! ✨
It’s unfortunate that you react like this. I don’t claim to be an expert, never have. I’ve only been asking for evidence, but all we get to are assumptions and they all seem to stem from the fact that allegedly the CIA has indirectly funded Signal (I’m not disputing nor validating it).
The concern is valid, and it has caused a lot of distrust in many companies due to the Snowden leaks, but that distrust is founded in the leaks. But so far there is no evidence that Signal is part of any of it. And given the continued endorsement by security experts, I’m inclined in trusting them.
I think Dessalines most recent comment is fair even if it’s harsh. You should understand the nature of a “national security letter” to have the context. The vast majority of (USA) government requests are NSLs because they require the least red tape. When you receive one, it’s illegal to disclose that you have, and not to comply. It requires you to share all metadata you have, but they routinely ask for more.
Here’s an article that details the CIA connection https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/signal-facing-collapse-after-cia
The concern doesn’t stem from the CIA funding. It’s inherit to all services operating in or hosted in the USA. They should be assumed compromised by default, since the laws of that country require them to be. Therefore, any app you trust has to be completely unable to spy on you. Signal understands this, and uses it in their marketing. But it isn’t true, they’ve made decisions that allow them to spy on you, and ask that you trust them not to. Matrix, XMPP and SimpleX cannot spy on you by design. (It’s possible those apps were made wrong, and therefore allow spying, but that’s a different argument).