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Turning off overprotective security ? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi all.

For a long long time I've been very happy with Signal, but have lately become rather annoyed that:

it too often bugs me about about an update and forces me to do an update before I can write to my single/only recipient, and
it too often bugs me about my pin code, even tho I never asked for such an annoying level of security.

These security measures are completely overkill for my/normal use, unnecessary, annoying and very aggressive. I'm an adult, and unless there's a super dangerous zeroday attack/vulnerability, I don't need constant forced updates, I don't want to retype a pin code for any reason or interval, and I certainly don't need to be told how I should run my system, when to upgrade or have software on my system that 'randomly' gets locked down for whatever reason.

Does anyone know how I can turn it off (Linux, Android) ? Is there another client fork that don't force me to follow their idea of what security level is necessary ?

Thanks, and apols for negativity..

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Turn off the pin notification. Pretty easy...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Damn. How the [beep] did I miss that one !? Sloppy. Sorry about that..

Tho it still doesn't let me enter the pin. when I press enter, the keyboard just disappears. However this may likely be my old degoogled Android setup.

Thanks..

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can disable the pin/the popup. I haven't had to type my pin ever, other than to register a new device.

For the updates: which platform are you using. On android it updates automatically and never bothers me when starting. On Windows it displays a message about a new update, but in 99% of cases I can still use the app without updating.

No experience with the Linux client but I assume if you just regularly update your system, maybe turn on unattended upgrades in your package manager etc. it will also keep signal up to date.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Sorry for delay. I'm using the Linux version (6.41.0) and there's a Signal in-app message saying that 'This version have expired. upgrade to latest version to continue messaging'

I oc don't mind updating if there's a huge security flaw that harms others, but they could explain that an update is absolutely crucial, it has happened several times before, and I don't need excessive security for a 2-person network with my son. If the underlying protocol is still insecure at this point, then its not so good.

I can hope that the latest forced upgrades was just an emergency, but otherwise I'll have to find another stable client/protocol.

For the pin issue, I goofed up and didn't see the setting (sorry). Thanks for answer.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I've gathered that verifying your pin is just as much about everyone else's security, as it is yours.

The app update nags are indeed annoying, assuming they aren't because of breaking changes between versions.