I don’t like being misinterpreted.

Because you’re making stuff up. Literally every install of an OS has some little issue here and there-- but this is my mistake for assuming any Linux community could be humble enough to cut the BS and stop acting like Linux is a flawless experience. I’m out, keep hanging out at that ~5% market cap and wondering why folks don’t flock over despite it being free.

I don’t believe it works “flawlessly” and I’m tired of people exaggerating their experience in such a misleading way. There’s always some hitches and I don’t get why people basically have to cake their OS experience with makeup like this.

I think the distinction here is that if your phone provider, WhatsApp, Signal or mail carrier is informed that someone is engaging in illegal activity using their service, these entities would comply and give the information they have on you-- be it a lot like SMS or a little like Signal (phone number, registration date).

In the case of Telegram, they’ve been informed countless times that specific individuals are engaging in blatantly illegal activity and unlike the previously mentioned entities, Telegram is refusing to comply with any legal requests.

I believe that’s the situation but if I’m wrong, by all means correct me because this is a very interesting subject.

I use a VPN 24/7 and I haven’t had any issues with Lemmy for posting/commenting. I know reddit fully blocks my VPN with some IP addresses unless I use old.reddit, which is part of why I’ve just had it and left.

Jokes aside, I’m a firm believer that upvotes/downvotes should be private and I think it’s very unfortunate that they aren’t. I’m fine with people downvoting me and me not knowing who they are.

Every app from the Play store requires GCM though, and Signal functions even if a user disables GCM. It pertains to a phone’s ability to notify a user of a new message. But again, users can disable GCM and the app itself will continue to work just fine.

For what it’s work, the APK on Signal’s website (obviously) doesn’t have the external Google dependencies. Personally, I really don’t see this as an issue at all.

How significant is it that the server code is open-source or not? It’s possible for Signal to publish their server code while running completely different software on their servers. The point of the client is being open source and audited on a regular basis by the community, which is why it doesn’t make sense to trust the server-side software.

The entire point is that we don’t have to trust the sever at all. The client is open source and regularly audited by the community. As long as the client stays fully open source, everything’s fine. Also, the closed source dependencies are part of a spam reduction effort which IMO is well worth it. Prior to this, Signal had a spam problem and the client itself remains fully open source.

Signal could have very well not even told people that they added a closed source dependency on Google to its servers and just lied by publishing fake server code that omits the closed source dependency., but instead they were very transparent about the spam problem. In terms of they “why?” regarding the closed source dependencies, their argument is that making it open source would almost immediately result in all anti-spam measures being thwarted. Frankly I’m inclined to agree and again, as long as the client is fully open source and regularly audited, the server code is irrelevant to user privacy/security.

https://community.signalusers.org/t/spam-scam-on-signal/26665

https://signal.org/blog/keeping-spam-off-signal/

Assuming you’ve audited Signal, can you tell us what your findings were and why you think Signal must be up to something pretty bad? I’m very curious and would love to be enlightened by someone as knowledgeable as you.

You’re definitely a white guy lol, thanks for the laugh. You really can’t see how being a white guy and having the privilege that comes with that isn’t relevant to a discussion about privacy and security, really? Like come on, I’m a POC but as a man, I also am well aware of how ridiculously privileged I am when it comes to being a little careless about my privacy and security.

Never commenting, but only showing votes could result in someone getting doxxed because their up/downvotes could be about regional instances, i.e. their city/state. Why play dumb about what can be used to dox someone? You really think one needs a home address as a starting point to dox someone? Regional plants and their growth stages can be used to dox people who post local photos online without thinking twice about security and while that obviously won’t result in a home address right away, breadcrumbs leave a trail. You clearly just haven’t thought about this much becaaaaaaause… like I said, privileged white guy that can afford to not consider this stuff.

8 TB but I’m just a regular Joe with a penchant for piracy.

Can you see how easily one can use that logic to basically be as abusive as they want online and be A-OK with their online account being held accountable as long as it doesn’t actually impact their personal life?

You mentioned accountability. Do you believe that only extends to an online profile?

Opt in would be far more of a reasonable option .

Just curious, are you a man? Specifically, are you a white man? Because pretty much every POC and woman I know is far more privacy/safety conscious than damn near every white guy I’ve met who just lives his life with a ho-hum attitude about privacy/security.

If someone never comments in their regional instance but merely upvotes a post or comment, it’s ridiculous that this info should be made public because it can easily lead to someone getting doxxed. It’s so noble of you that you’re more than happy to stand up for what you think, but I really wonder how folks like you would feel if that involved your home address being targeted.

Nice dodging. Here’s hoping you get doxxed someday, I think that would be hilarious.

So because it’s hard for you to access but easier for others, it’s not a problem? One user could just publicize the info on a more accessible website.

Sure sounds like a lot of victim blaming to me. If someone upvoted a post in their city’s regional instance but never commented, it’s insane to me that a) that vote should be publicly viewable and b) people would blame the user.

Most social media is garbage for reasons including that.

Accountability, really? Okay, what’s your full legal name and address? If you’re totally fine with your idea of accountability, why not tell us all?