Hey Folks! Someone in my family (Person A), has talked to a guy, who is working in the tech world, about if it make sense to use Signal, over Messenger, Snap, WhatsApp, with privacy in mind. The tech guy said, there is no difference, and that its not making sense to use it and that its almost the same. I know Signal is discussed alot here, but im now looking for some arguments, and facts to tell the one from my family, that the tech guy is wrong. What arguments can i use, why is Signal better in privacy, then the other alternatives? Person A, has always been sceptical about me beeing so privacy minded, and A thinks that there is nothing to do to protect, and is one of thoese saying : I have nothing to hide.

Edit: thank you for the help

  • Undertaker@feddit.org
    402·
    9 days ago

    First of all, Signals code is open. Many people arround the world can check (and they already did) if the messenger lives up to its promises, is secure, private and so on. The others are not. Whatever you think they do, you have to trust a company like Meta. You wanna be that naive?

    All those apps collect data: when you are online, where you are online, who is talking to who. Maybe also what you are talking about… we can’t know. For example: Some psychatrists do not use WhatsApp because using such an app in the waiting room would provide Meta with information like ‘you have mental health issues’. Signal on the other hand does verifiable not collect such data.

    We also can see bahaviours coming from big companies to direct societies into a direction of their favor. They act like this, because maximum profit and power is what they are working for - they are simply companies. Signal on the other hand is a foundation which aims to provide security, encryption, privacy and fight against censorship (not in terms of content but in terms of countries blocking messenger services). What could be the more trustworthy base?

    Btw Signal uses donations to pay their development and Servers so you can use the app for free. What does Meta use to handle costs for WhatsApp, Facebook and so on… Maybe they are charitable 🤞

    To name differences:

    • No adds
    • No tracking
    • Local backup (not on Google services or something like that)
    • No exchange of personal data like phone number (they use a hash instead)
    • You can use a pseudonym in form of a user name to get in contact with others (without telling them your phone number) and you can easily delete it and use a new one
    • Signal created the Signal protocol which is called the gold standard, as it is the most secure and to encryption mechanism. They were the first so add resistance against quantum computers

    And finally the better question is:
    Why should the world use WhatsApp and co and not Signal? They do not have one advantage. If the whole world would use Signal, Threema or similar apps, it wouldn’t lose anything but would win so much. Think about that

    • vipaal@aussie.zone
      3·
      8 days ago

      I tried arguing along similar lines. Failed and fell flat on my face when it came to history. There’s so much chat history on WhatsApp for instance that without a way to port it all over to Signal, near impossible if that to bring people over.

      • umean2me@discuss.onlineEnglish
        5·
        7 days ago

        Maybe I’m the outlier but I have always failed to see chat history being very important. Realistically when is the last time you’ve combed through chat histories and why? If it’s to look for important information you can just write down the important parts and the rest is useless. I’m not trying to be elitist or anything I’m just genuinely curious hoping someone can explain this to me.

      • Thorned_Rose@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        7 days ago

        Technology and servers can get messed up. You are relying on software and hardware to keep stuff safe when the reality is it could fall over tomorrow and all your chat will be gone. Important info should be recorded elsewhere and backed up if need be. Just like in the old days before online chat existed. We survived just fine then and we can survive again without having 14 years of chat history or whatever.

        Personally I always turn disappearing messages on in Signal. If my phone or computer was ever broken into, in would rather the perpetrators not have years of personal info and photos shared between my friends and family to do the gods know what with.