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Board Changes at Signal
- bilal4hmed 3y agoOne thing Id really like to see is cross OS transfer. I feel Im locked in to my OS because of Signal right now as Ill lose messages. There are some messages I dont want lost and sadly having them in signal is a bummer. This is where whatsapp just excels
- getcrunk 3y agoThey should have a manual backup export to an encrypted format and make you responsible for the key
- bilal4hmed 3y agoI would accept that too, but I should be able to take my messages with me anywhere I go
- proaralyst 3y agoThey have exactly that: you can set up a periodic encrypted backup under settings > chats. It'll occasionally ask you for your backup password so you don't forget it too
- orhmeh09 3y agoNot seeing this on iOS.
- impissedoff1 3y agoWhy even bother with signal if you use closed source iOS?
- chimeracoder 3y ago> They have exactly that: you can set up a periodic encrypted backup under settings > chats. It'll occasionally ask you for your backup password so you don't forget it too Last I checked, that was Android only. And the password they periodically ask for is your PIN, which is unrelated to your backup password.
- Solvency 3y agoIf nothing else, I've learned a man with the name "Moxie Marlinspike" exists today.
- DaiPlusPlus 3y agoThey’re kinda legendary - and I can’t deny having a cool name does help with getting people to recognise you.
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago[flagged]
- DaiPlusPlus 3y agoI'm having a Mandela-moment - I could swear Moxie came-out as nonbinary or similar - but a quick duckduckgo search says otherwise, so apparently not. My mistake.
- batiudrami 3y ago“They’re” works perfectly fine (albeit a little grammatically awkward) if you aren’t sure of someone’s gender anyway. Not sure why the above comment felt compelled to correct.
- burnished 3y agoIt seems to have become customary to frankly and quickly correct some one's pronoun useage to comply with noun's stated preference.
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y agoI thought it was funny
- icedchai 3y ago"They" can be used for anyone, any group, singular or plural, in modern english. You can never go wrong with it.
- candiddevmike 3y agoWith moxie gone, will signal remove the cryptocoin shit?
- sneak 3y agoIf you build a truly private e2ee communications system, it is a little bit silly not to include a payments feature, as it's just an e2ee messaging use case (like stickers, or reactions, or stories, etc). There are lots of useful apps you can build atop e2ee messaging: location sharing, payments, group chats, secret sharing, etc.
- candiddevmike 3y agoIt is silly to include it, I have other apps to do that without using cryptocurrency. It was a MobileCoin grift.
- sneak 3y agoThis is just anti-cryptocurrency bias; other payment systems require identity by law, which renders them much less useful for many people (and unworkable for most service providers who must then be regulated and licensed as money transmitters). This was the only method available of doing payments inside the app in a way that met their product requirements. It's fine to not like cryptocurrency; it's intellectually dishonest to accuse every project of crime without evidence.
- idlewords 3y agoCrime is the perfectly sensible default assumption for cryptocurrency apps in 2023. Accusing people of anti-cryptocurrency bias is like saying someone has anti-forest-fire bias; there are certainly scenarios where such a bias could be unfair, but the burden of proof is on you, not the other guy.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
- dogecoinbase 3y agoGlad to hear Moxie's out. As a reminder, Signal didn't publish the source for their server-side from 20 April 2020 to 6 April 2021 [0] while they secretly added a cryptocurrency payment system to which Moxie was a paid technical advisor [1], which Moxie denied they were doing in January 2021 [2]. 0: https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/04/06/it-looks-like-signal-isnt-as-open-source-as-you-thought-it-was-anymore/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/04/06/it-looks-like-signa... (source was published shortly after the publication of that article) 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26715013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26715013 (comment from founder of MobileCoin) 2: https://www.theverge.com/22249391/signal-app-abuse-messaging-employees-violence-misinformation https://www.theverge.com/22249391/signal-app-abuse-messaging...
- ggm 3y agoI'm not "glad to hear Moxie's out" -signal wouldn't exist without his work. I agree the crypto was stupid. But, it was a product of the times, and I believe it grew (from scant evidence) out of concern about independent funding longterm for the project. It didn't work: it rebounded badly. I use signal every day. I'm glad it exists, I'm glad he did the work. I like Meredith, and I think the new board needs to be given time to bed in and for us to see how things eventuate.
- juped 3y agoI don't want Signal to have payments (or to axe SMS support). Those are both stupid things for Signal to do, which make it worse for me and worse in general. However, "what if [author's political opponents] used Signal?!" is a revolting hook to hang that hit piece on.
- robbintt 3y agoI don't buy that this really matters, I'm an avid signal user and never even heard of this.
- elektor 3y agoDoes anyone have any insight on the new board members? Good for privacy?
- none_to_remain 3y agoYou can see their bios on signalfoundation.org , but it doesn't look very promising at a glance. Think tanks, federal agencies, NGO blob, etc.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- TechBro8615 3y agoI agree, the fed connections aren't a great sign... it reminds me of when Condy Rice joined the Dropbox board. But to be fair that's the person in charge of policy, so it's the kind of profile you'd expect. (Of course, you're free to argue that a messaging application has no good reason to hire for such a position in the first place.)
- chimeracoder 3y ago> I agree, the fed connections aren't a great sign... it reminds me of when Condy Rice joined the Dropbox board. Let's be fair: there's a big difference between "this person has worked in or near the federal government" and "this person has literally committed war crimes". If there are specific concerns about the people on Signal's board, I'd be interested in hearing it, but having Fed connections doesn't inherently mean a whole lot.
- frabbit 3y agoLet`s be truly fair: the USA "federal government" is historically and presently one of the biggest committers of war crimes in the world. If you work for it you work for evil. I am sure it keeps the kids in Montessori and enables travel to the last wildernesses on earth, but that doesn`t count for much for the millions of Vietnamese, Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan, East Timorese etc etc This announcement shows clearly that Signal is at the end of its life and it is time to jump ship.
- mariusseufzer 3y agoMaybe we’ll finally get a backup feature on iOS?
- signaluser 3y agoSeeing usage statistics, it seems that signal is dying slowly. It boomed during covid but almost no new chat is started there nowadays.
- bilal4hmed 3y agoCan you provide a link to the stats please?
- signaluser 3y agohttps://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F012pq75w&hl=en https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...
- bilal4hmed 3y agothose are search trends and not usage trends.
- signaluser 3y agoYou are right, i thought for a moment I was in usagetrends.google.com
- Lornedon 3y agoWhy do you respond like that to valid criticism?
- signaluser 3y agoGoogle trends is a good proxy for usage. It's not the whole picture but a good start. No need to point the obvious
- kstrauser 3y ago
- caycep 3y agoWow, did not realize Moxie was doing something else...when did he step back?
- bilal4hmed 3y agoover a year ago https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/10/22876891/signal-ceo-steps-down-moxie-marlinspike-encryption-cryptocurrency https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/10/22876891/signal-ceo-steps...
- TechBro8615 3y agoMaybe it was announced a year ago, and he "changed roles" then, but this toot(?) from today suggests he's only now fully leaving: https://mastodon.world/@signalapp/110549359401156075 https://mastodon.world/@signalapp/110549359401156075
- bilal4hmed 3y agomisread it sorry. He left as CEO over a year ago, but remained on the board. Today he leaves the board as well and basically has 0 influence in the co. anymore
- getcrunk 3y agoI see some comments saying they are happy moxie is out. I for one am saddened. I trusted signal in part due to his persona. And his in your face attitude towards that one company that provided software to law enforcement that claimed to hack signal.
- ricopags 3y agoCellebrite[0] is the company in question. [0]https://signal.org/blog/cellebrite-vulnerabilities/ https://signal.org/blog/cellebrite-vulnerabilities/
- red-iron-pine 3y ago> By a truly unbelievable coincidence, I was recently out for a walk when I saw a small package fall off a truck ahead of me. As I got closer, the dull enterprise typeface slowly came into focus: Cellebrite. Yeah, uh huh. Good analysis tho
- TechBro8615 3y agoThe OP didn't mention Moxie leaving, so here's a link to the source [0] (toot?) for that: > After over a decade spent creating Signal, Moxie has departed to focus on new efforts. As the founder of Signal, the work he did and the organization he built are the reason Signal exists. We are infinitely grateful. He remains a friend and a core part of the Signal legacy Safe travels to Moxie. I look forward to seeing what he builds next. [0] https://mastodon.world/@signalapp/110549359401156075 https://mastodon.world/@signalapp/110549359401156075
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y agoI worry about what it means for the future of Signal in terms of their privacy features. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some compromises even despite good intentions. It’s good that effective alternatives exist for such use but it might frustrate people who bet on Signal in some way.
- frabbit 3y agoMoxie the anarchist owes the rest of us a public statement about what he thinks Signal is now that the board has US State Department ghouls on it.
- frabbit 3y agoKatherine Maher? The US State Department definitely-not-a-spook one? The one that was at Wikipedia and "spent time in Syria and Lybia"? Sounds wonderful for a messaging system that is going to be definitely trusted not to be manipulated by the USA.
- ldehaan 3y ago[dead]