I have for years refused to use Signal and WhatsApp because they are the same: privacy governed by central dictators.

Imagine how hard I laughed learning that Signal is naming a WhatsApp co-founder as acting CEO.

theverge.com/2022/1/10/2287689

@lrvick One should not forget Signal is open source, so it is always possible to fork. It should not be compared to apps and solutions that are proprietary.

@gytis They release open source code, but they are a closed network deployment.

In a communications system the social graph is the most important thing. Being able to take the code with you without the social graph, is not an "open".

It gets worse when you consider Moxie has rejected third parties like linux distros or F-Droid from reproducing and distributing clients, or that the server source is partly closed and centralized.

@gytis How can you prove that the code released is what went into the binary released on a proprietary app store corresponds with the source code?

What about for every update they push that you accept blindly?

What if one update backdoored every user and covertly tampered with the private key entropy of select targets? Who would notice?

With true open projects, binaries can be built/distributed by anyone without repercussions.

@gytis Also let's not forget that all metadata protection claims in Signal rest on the assumption no sysadmins at Signal don't downgrade their SGX nodes to known vulnerable versions they can dump keys from to then form a fully plaintext communications tree.

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@lrvick What do you mean by "plaintext communcation tree"? @gytis

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