this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2022
53 points (96.5% liked)

Privacy

32173 readers
664 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

SimpleX > Session > Signal in terms of metadata.

On Signal, your user id is your phone number, a directly identifying piece of information. That is a major point of weakness in terms of metadata reduction, usernames would remedy this significantly.

On Session, your user id is anonymous, a randomized string of numbers and letters. However, this user identifier is persistent, meaning if multiple people were found messaging that single randomized ID, that is data about that user even though it the id is randomized.

On SimpleX (although you do have to option to have a persistent ID on top of using this), every conversation uses a randomized user id you send to your contact via a QR code or link. This means in terms of identifying you're talking to the right person, SimpleX is weaker as if someone hijacks the link, they can impersonate you. The links are one time only, so you have to make sure you transfer the link securely (i.e. QR code via encrypted video call, a message on another secure messenger, or scanning the QR code in person). Once you establish the connection however, SimpleX is a more private experience because of the lack of a persistent user identifer. This also means no spam, ever!

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Signal has moved away from using phone numbers

[–] root 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Since when? I still use a number it seems

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

I thought a few months ago? But maybe that's just when they stopped allowing SMS

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah. They stopped using sms a few months ago but divorcing from phone numbers is who knows when

[–] root 2 points 1 year ago

Hm, when I go to settings it still has my number displayed even though I can't use it for SMS. It would be nice if they went to a un/ pw model one day. Then maybe I could use it on my phone and Android tablet at the same time :(

[–] pabloscloud 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] pabloscloud 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They are already working on usernames but didn't provide a date