Let's be honest, Signal was never an option.
Rather than being free software, signal is more like museum software, you can see, but you cannot touch.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2021
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Privacy
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A few years ago (2017?) I decided I would move messenger apps. The aim (and what I’ve achieved) was all my messaging going through a secure, private app.
Signal was never an option.
In 2017, Signal really was the only option. Element (Riot, back then) was really bad and didn’t feature e2ee (which only got enabled by default last year!). XMPP was and remains difficult to use (not even many people here use it, how could I expect “normal people” to use it?)
I made the choice to use Signal, and I don’t regret it. I only regret that it has taken until now that we are starting to see a glimmer of a real competitor, in the form of Matrix. But a really competitor to Whatsapp and the like, back in 2017, just didn’t exist outside of Signal.
I’ve been recommending Session over signal for a while. It does what’s signal is supposed to do, and more, with even more anonymity
Another big problem with Signal is the fact that it's centralized with the server being located in US. Even if the protocol itself is secure with the server not having access user data, this presents a huge risk since US government can simply force Signal to shut down the service at any time. The server can also potentially collect metadata about the users providing US security agencies with user connection graphs.
I think that Matrix approach is much more sound, and would always recommend it over Signal.