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I imagine that getting caught using Signal could be dangerous, whether to an "elite user" planning a one way trip from Hawaii to Russia with a layover in HK, or

I imagine that getting caught using Signal could be dangerous, whether to an "elite user" planning a one way trip from Hawaii to Russia with a layover in HK, or even to a minor with an abusive parent-over-shoulder. In some countries, a single boolean of metadata could put you in jail or worse. A future Signal update (usernames?) may address this use case. But update or no, it's irresponsible to proffer these scenarios as relevant to the typical westerner, especially given the abysmal privacy of the popular alternatives. If you're reading this in English, Signal is the most effective tool for private communications available to you.

cyphar 6y ago
> But update or no, it's irresponsible to proffer these scenarios as relevant to the typical westerner, especially given the abysmal privacy of the popular alternatives. Have you considered the (sadly) common case of an abusive partner who is likely to see your sudden usage of Signal as an indication that you are speaking to other people about their abuse, or at the least asking others for help? I don't think these scenarios are nearly as rare as you think they are. These cases do definitely happen in English-speaking countries -- not that I understand your argument here in the first place (Signal is available world-wide and has been translated to many other languages, what does language have to do with anything?). Not to mention that Signal themselves don't warn you about this behaviour at all. (Yes, you could argue that an abusive partner has many other avenues through which to discover that you're asking for help -- but that isn't a defense of providing more avenues for an abuser to discover you're asking for help. Again, Signal actively notifies all of your contacts that you've started using Signal -- which is above and beyond the transparent upgrade from SMS to Signal messages you mentioned.)
- zepto 6y ago
  Signal isn’t optimized for the use case where you need to use it to ask for help in an abuse scenario. But isn’t that scenario a weak one? How would you know to install signal and reach out to a specific person for help if you hadn’t already asked for help?

cyphar 6y ago

> But update or no, it's irresponsible to proffer these scenarios as relevant to the typical westerner, especially given the abysmal privacy of the popular alternatives. Have you considered the (sadly) common case of an abusive partner who is likely to see your sudden usage of Signal as an indication that you are speaking to other people about their abuse, or at the least asking others for help? I don't think these scenarios are nearly as rare as you think they are. These cases do definitely happen in English-speaking countries -- not that I understand your argument here in the first place (Signal is available world-wide and has been translated to many other languages, what does language have to do with anything?). Not to mention that Signal themselves don't warn you about this behaviour at all. (Yes, you could argue that an abusive partner has many other avenues through which to discover that you're asking for help -- but that isn't a defense of providing more avenues for an abuser to discover you're asking for help. Again, Signal actively notifies all of your contacts that you've started using Signal -- which is above and beyond the transparent upgrade from SMS to Signal messages you mentioned.)

zepto 6y ago
Signal isn’t optimized for the use case where you need to use it to ask for help in an abuse scenario. But isn’t that scenario a weak one? How would you know to install signal and reach out to a specific person for help if you hadn’t already asked for help?