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Signal is just a company selling privacy (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/technology

80 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Signal is a centralized app, run by a company. If they are offered enough money or legal threat they will sell out or close.

I am sure people will make an argument that its FOSS and people will just fork it if it goes bad, but a new fork will have 0 users and Signal will still have all of your old contacts. Why not make a switch now? Before it is even more popular and you have more reasons to stay? Why fork it if there are already decentralized apps that use same encryption, like XMPP apps?

Sure you can find flaws in every app, including XMPP implementations, but if we will have to write code for a new Signal fork, why not just fix whatever is that bugs you in XMPP clients?

If you want to use Matrix, that is fine as well, we can always bridge the two open protocols. But you cant bridge Signal if their company doesn't allow it.

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

You don't understand how FOSS works. If signal "sells out" we just take a fork of the repo before the sell out and continue building the private app we love. Also signal uses no central server for your content. It's device to device, if they sold out right now all they would have is a list of users, but no conversations.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have already explained this in my post, it's a second paragraph. I will quote it for you:

"I am sure people will make an argument that its FOSS and people will just fork it if it goes bad, but a new fork will have 0 users and Signal will still have all of your old contacts. Why not make a switch now? Before it is even more popular and you have more reasons to stay? Why fork it if there are already decentralized apps that use same encryption, like XMPP apps?"