this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Signal's hostility to third party clients is a huge red flag.

They also refuse to distance themselves from Google's app store.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

That's outdated information:

Go forth and contribute, fork, or create your own.

They also refuse to distance themselves from Google’s app store.

This link has existed forever at this point if we count in internet years: https://signal.org/android/apk/ - getting an app directly from the developer with no middleman is about as distant as you can get from Google's app store.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I wish they had Signal on F-droid but at the end of the day at least it is possible to use Molly Foss.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Signal actually has a rule on not using third party clients on its servers. These clients existing do not prove the point you intend.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

can you post a link to this rule?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Those clients exist despite Signal Foundation, not because they encourage community development. They are doing everything they can to discourage third party app development.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They are doing everything they can to discourage third party app development.

I'd say you're moving the goalpost. Other than the hostility the founder showed towards LibreSignal nearly 10 years ago now, can you source any evidence to support your claim?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That link, and I could be missing it, has nothing to do with what I claimed. Mind editing your post and quoting a red flag linked at the source you provided?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Some of my favourite red flags:

Signal's dependence on Google libraries: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/9044#issuecomment-535194837

Signal dev bullshitting a non-answer and then hilariously refuting his non-answer: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/9044#issuecomment-534340623

Signal hiding its serverside source code for many months: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/11101

You can find many more examples.

The last one about server side code, together with Signal's funding sources and their obsession with phone numbers code leads me to suspect that Signal is just a honeypot by US intelligence.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Those clients exist despite Signal Foundation, not because they encourage community development. They are doing everything they can to discourage third party app development.

That was your original claim. None of the sources you provided back up your original claim. We can talk about Google libraries or the delay in server side code if you want to go down that path, but that's a completely different discussion. Why are you pivoting to other topics? Will you concede your original point or do you have evidence to back it up?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I would like to use it from f-droid instead of google store or apk

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

https://molly.im/ Especially the FOSS version. Need to manually add the repository though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

This is the way.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Do you hate Signal or do you hate the west? There legitimate reasons to not like Signal but calling them hostile toward third party clients is untrue. Last time I checked Signal wasn't proprietary.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They have demonstrated history of asking third party clients to not use the signal name, and not use the signal network. The client that currently exists that do this do it against the wishes of the signal foundation

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They have demonstrated history of asking third party clients to not use the signal name, and not use the signal network.

The lead developer, nearly 10 years ago now, specifically asked LibreSignal to stop. A single event does not make a demonstrated history.

The client that currently exists that do this do it against the wishes of the signal foundation

If you have evidence to back this claim, I would like to see it so I can stop spreading misinformation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

In the Libra signal issue that you linked to, they made it clear they don't want third-party clients talking to signal servers

You're free to use our source code for whatever you would like under the terms of the license, but you're not entitled to use our name or the service that we run.

If you think running servers is difficult and expensive (you're right), ask yourself why you feel entitled for us to run them for your product.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He was specifically talking to that developer. The "You" and "You're" in that quote was specifically targeted at the LibreSignal developer.

I recall the gurk-rs developer specifically mentioned that his client reports to Signal's servers as a non-official app. The Signal admins can see the client name and version - just like websites can tell what browser you're using - and could easily block third party clients if they wanted to but they don't.

If Signal wanted to block third party clients, they would have blocked them already.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Moxie made it incredibly clear, he does not want third party is talking to the signal servers.

Libra signal took him at his word and turn themselves off

The other developers, like Molly, take a stronger road.

Is signal currently banning third party clients? No. But they've made it clear they don't like them. They didn't actually ban Libra signal, they just asked them to stop. Could they ban the clients in the future? Yes

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I'll reiterate my statement as you didn't address it.

If Signal wanted to block third party clients, they would have blocked them already.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago

If you have a backdoored client, then you would naturally object to third party clients :)

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago

What? How is this a red flag? Having third party clients is not good for security.