this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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Privacy

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I remember a time when visiting a website that opens a javacript dialog box asking for your name so the message "hi " could be displayed was baulked at.

Why does signal want a phone number to register? Is there a better alternative?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

https://jami.net/

Offers the same privacy but is not centralised. it's peer to peer

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago (9 children)
  1. Yes, and in that time you would visit a website with your own IP address likely, likely over HTTP without SSL/TLS, likely with your vulnerable browser fingerprint. Point?

  2. Privacy, not anonymity. Two completely different things.

  3. Because the way Signal is built hosting it requires a lot of resources (storage especially), so they want spam prevention and fewer accounts per person.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

as I see it, Signal tried to fit that privacy gap for a standard centralised messenger, if you think about it, that might have made it easier to non-tech-savvy people to adopt it (even if it was as a request from a contact), decentralisation is not remotely appealing to them

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (7 children)

Jami.net

Ignore the comment saying signal is "end to end encrypted" "private" etc They are simply stuck in a delusional state where they try to convince themselves that signal is the best option so they can continue using it. Nothing is private if it isn't fully libre because you never know what the proprietary code is doing. The signal protocol itself has its source code released, and the encryption and security code is publicly available, but the signal Foundation has stated that it uses both free code and proprietary code. Their reason is UI, but it's hard to make sure whatever proprietary code is being used for because you simply can't see it. As GNU puts it: "You're walking in a pitch black cave". Jami is fully libre and is a GNU project. You don't even need any phone number!

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

You can easily verify the keys of the person you’re speaking with, and they’re generated locally… so technically speaking, even if their servers are leaking, your messages are still unreadable, but yea that’s not ideal

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Jami, as much as I prefer it on various philosophical grounds, simply doesn't work very well at the moment. :(

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (8 children)

You should have visited Signal's github page first, I dunno. Before talking. Made up a lot of stuff.

They do have proprietary code for that crypto wallet they have there, well hidden, and for, eh, phone number registration, but other than that module it's all released, I think.

The server and the client applications are FOSS. You can host it for yourself, patching out the domain names and registration parts the way you like it more.

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

I didn't actually know the server code was published. It'd be cool if the client allowed multiple servers so you could talk to people on the "normal" master while also thing a private instance

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

I think choosing a server, like in some ICQ clients, is not a complex modification.

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

Tried session? Anyone have comments on it? Nice to be able to skip the phone and easily use vpn, though I haven’t spent enough time on that.

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