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Signal is also problematic.
by kbwt 9y ago
Signal is also problematic.
- nileshtrivedi 9y agoSignal also requires biometrics to be shared with the govt for 1/6th of the world's population (India) by insisting on a phone number for registration.
- justin66 9y agoHow does India's government collect that information?
- sn0opy 9y agoBest guess is that it is similar to Germany. In Germany, there are no anonymous prepaid SIM cards anymore. They're now registered to your name. Thus, in theory, the gov has access to it too.
- fnord123 9y agoI wonder if there would be interest in sim swap parties. This is an idea I had with Oyster cards in London where you get together and swap Oyster cards with other people to confound the profile building.
- feintruled 9y agoI suppose a problem with that might be if someone who takes your SIM does something illegal with it. Then you are on the hook for it.
- rlpb 9y ago> Then you are on the hook for it. This is a myth. If you didn't commit a crime, you aren't on the hook for it. For example: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/08/public-wi-fi-forget-the-scare-stories-read-this/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/08/publi... You might, however, get investigated (search warrant etc) because unless such mixing becomes really common, it's reasonable for the authorities to suspect you for the crime in the first instance. Edit: perhaps a better example is https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-open-wifi-operator-not-liable-for-pirate-users-160916/ https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-open-wifi-operator-not-lia...
- ge0rg 9y agoThis is a myth. If you didn't commit a crime, you aren't on the hook for it. This is a nice theory. In Germany, if you are the owner of a SIM card associated with a crime, it is well possible that a prosecutor will consider this sufficient for a warrant, and the police will visit you early in the morning, taking away all your digital devices for something between three months and some years. Regarding the Wi-Fi hotspot examples you provided (which are not quite the same), in Germany there is a nice legal construct called the "Störerhaftung" (liability for interference), in which you have a civil liability for e.g. copyright violation commited over your uplink. (IANAL)
- rlpb 9y ago> This is a nice theory. In Germany, if you are the owner of a SIM card associated with a crime, it is well possible that a prosecutor will consider this sufficient for a warrant, and the police will visit you early in the morning, taking away all your digital devices for something between three months and some years. Like I already said: just because you aren't already on the hook for it doesn't mean that you won't be legitimately suspected of the crime in the first instance.
- justin66 9y agoThat's not "biometric." I assumed the OP had something in mind more specific.
- ritinkar 9y agoIn India, all SIM cards have to be linked to Aadhar card , which is a unique identifier of a person with biometrics attached
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- justin66 9y agoThanks. The wikipedia article on Aadhar card looks like a deep dive... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadhaar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadhaar
- robinwassen 9y agoAnd if you are a foreigner the SIM linked to your passport, which is linked to your fingerprints that they take upon immigration.
- hnarn 9y agoAssuming that you elect to register with Signal using your Indian number of course, which you are in no way obliged to do.
- kuschku 9y agoWell, Moxie’s Signal gives you two options: 1. Use your phone number 2. Don’t use Signal. I don’t see a "don’t use the phone number, but still use Signal" option there.
- ge0rg 9y ago3. use a phone number from a semi-anonymous online VoIP service like https://jmp.chat/ https://jmp.chat/ (can be reached via Tor)
- kuschku 9y agoWhich cost money or can be reused by anyone else. At which point Signal is basically $2.99 per month to use it securely.
- IntronExon 9y ago3. Use a burner phone.
- kuschku 9y agoIn many countries, burner phones require registration with biometrics as well. For example, Germany requires registration of burner phones with ID or passport before any network is allowed to activate the SIM. The ID and passport obviously are linked to your fingerprints and face. Signal is advertised to people in oppressive regimes as a solution to avoid the government from snooping on their messages (this security from nation states is further implied due to their framing of Snowden comments). Requiring an identifier that’s linked to a government ID is the opposite of that.
- 9y ago
- dang 9y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16445549 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16445549 and marked it off-topic.