4 ms·

unless they allow no phone accounts, its a non starter for many. including me. having been persecuted for having whatsapp installed on the phone, (which i perso

unless they allow no phone accounts, its a non starter for many. including me. having been persecuted for having whatsapp installed on the phone, (which i personally dont, btw) for an adversary like a police state, whatsapp encryption is somewhat moot. public 'news' groups on whatsapp have admins and they are made to report to the local police station where that malware is installed. then its just a matter of time waiting for people to talk. the issue here is every account is linked to a phone number. easy for police to cross reference a person with that number because of already stringent kyc norms on phone numbers. oh, telegram also suffers from this. oh, and being beaten for having installed a vpn https://scroll.in/article/952355/vpn-for-terrorism-in-kashmir-youth-allege-their-phones-are-checked-by-the-army-for-masking-apps https://scroll.in/article/952355/vpn-for-terrorism-in-kashmi... https://www.kahawatungu.com/whatsapp-admins-in-kashmir-now-required-to-register-groups-with-police/ https://www.kahawatungu.com/whatsapp-admins-in-kashmir-now-r...

godelski 6y ago
I heard that they were working on this. https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-introducing-usernames/9157/163 https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-introducing-usern...
- 2Gkashmiri 6y ago
  yeah. i follow that news
- 2Gkashmiri 6y ago
  you seem to be the only one actually replying to my comment. any idea what is the trigger word resulting in the downvotes?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - godelski 6y ago
    I'm not sure. Doesn't look like you're negative now (except this one). I guess because you're complaining about something that is in the works? But I'm not sure how you'd be expected to know what is going on. We're not all experts in the same things here and in the same areas. Whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This comment is downvoted because you asked about down votes.
    - 2Gkashmiri 6y ago
      Ah. Dont talk about fight club. Eh?. 'Anyways, I was not complaining. I was arguing why was phone used in the first place when there are real world security issues with it. Only because everyone is doing it. Then using a flawed tech with "security". I am hoping for signal to have usernames because until then I am not going to link
gopkarthik 6y ago
Agreed. Though Signal has more utility than WhatsApp thanks to its disappearing messages features. Technological solutions only go so far when offline restrictions can be imposed. It's entirely likely that once Signal figures out username based registration & sees some traction in, Governments will just ban it.
- input_sh 6y ago
  I mean, I guess it depends on which governments you're talking about, but I don't see that happening in the US or the EU. > In March 2017, Signal was approved by the Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate for use by senators and their staff. https://www.zdnet.com/article/in-encryption-push-senate-approves-signal-for-encrypted-messaging/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/in-encryption-push-senate-appr... > The European Commission has told its staff to start using Signal, an end-to-end-encrypted messaging app, in a push to increase the security of its communications. https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-commission-to-staff-switch-to-signal-messaging-app/ https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-commission-to-staff-switc...
  - Andrex 6y ago
    Depends how friendly the administration is to encryption. A lot has happened since March 2017. https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/27/trump-officials-weigh-encryption-crackdown-1385306 https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/27/trump-officials-we... https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/10/urgent-earn-it-act-introduced-house-representatives https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/10/urgent-earn-it-act-int... http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2020/06/there%E2%80%99s-now-even-worse-anti-encryption-bill-earn-it-doesn%E2%80%99t-make-earn-it-bill-ok http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2020/06/there%E2%80%99s-no... The US and cryptography have never really gotten along. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars
  - gopkarthik 6y ago
    Agreed, I doubt the EU is going to do that too. I replied assuming that the parent was from Kashmir/India.

godelski 6y ago

I heard that they were working on this. https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-introducing-usernames/9157/163 https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-introducing-usern...

2Gkashmiri 6y ago
yeah. i follow that news
2Gkashmiri 6y ago
you seem to be the only one actually replying to my comment. any idea what is the trigger word resulting in the downvotes?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- godelski 6y ago
  I'm not sure. Doesn't look like you're negative now (except this one). I guess because you're complaining about something that is in the works? But I'm not sure how you'd be expected to know what is going on. We're not all experts in the same things here and in the same areas. Whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This comment is downvoted because you asked about down votes.
  - 2Gkashmiri 6y ago
    Ah. Dont talk about fight club. Eh?. 'Anyways, I was not complaining. I was arguing why was phone used in the first place when there are real world security issues with it. Only because everyone is doing it. Then using a flawed tech with "security". I am hoping for signal to have usernames because until then I am not going to link

gopkarthik 6y ago

Agreed. Though Signal has more utility than WhatsApp thanks to its disappearing messages features. Technological solutions only go so far when offline restrictions can be imposed. It's entirely likely that once Signal figures out username based registration & sees some traction in, Governments will just ban it.

input_sh 6y ago
I mean, I guess it depends on which governments you're talking about, but I don't see that happening in the US or the EU. > In March 2017, Signal was approved by the Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate for use by senators and their staff. https://www.zdnet.com/article/in-encryption-push-senate-approves-signal-for-encrypted-messaging/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/in-encryption-push-senate-appr... > The European Commission has told its staff to start using Signal, an end-to-end-encrypted messaging app, in a push to increase the security of its communications. https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-commission-to-staff-switch-to-signal-messaging-app/ https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-commission-to-staff-switc...
- Andrex 6y ago
  Depends how friendly the administration is to encryption. A lot has happened since March 2017. https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/27/trump-officials-weigh-encryption-crackdown-1385306 https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/27/trump-officials-we... https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/10/urgent-earn-it-act-introduced-house-representatives https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/10/urgent-earn-it-act-int... http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2020/06/there%E2%80%99s-now-even-worse-anti-encryption-bill-earn-it-doesn%E2%80%99t-make-earn-it-bill-ok http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2020/06/there%E2%80%99s-no... The US and cryptography have never really gotten along. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars
- gopkarthik 6y ago
  Agreed, I doubt the EU is going to do that too. I replied assuming that the parent was from Kashmir/India.