this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
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The Signal messenger and protocol.

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https://signal.org/

founded 4 years ago
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"Third Parties. We work with third parties to provide some of our Services. For example, our Third-Party Providers send a verification code to your phone number when you register for our Services. These providers are bound by their Privacy Policies to safeguard that information. If you use other Third-Party Services like YouTube, Spotify, Giphy, etc. in connection with our Services, their Terms and Privacy Policies govern your use of those services."

We work with third parties to provide some of our Services.

What type of Services? And do Signal use our contacts or something private like that for third-parties?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It does offer an example of the services they use third parties to provide in the next sentence. So they're obviously giving out the phone number you provided at sign-up to the verification code people. I don't think there's any reason to believe they're giving away your contact list from this paragraph anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

It has end-to-end encryption for messages and its clear. But, I haven't looked at their source code yet and don't know which types data they send. Not only contacts, maybe more spesific things that is not encrypted. Just wanted to know it. But its exact that they give our numbers for verification. Thanks for comment. Goodbye.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The SMS based pone number verification is one. Another one is google for reCaptcha used to create a signal account. There is also some google dependency for the face blurring. There may be more.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Thanks for reply! I have a Samsung phone that De-Googled %100~ (exclude some important Android depencies based on Google). I restored GMS for auth in Signal. After the auth, I uninstalled it back. There is no Youtube, no Google - Chrome, no Spotify etc. Just FOSSed and de-Googled phone. Do I still using Google Services indirect ways because of Signal? Is it possible to be another third-party sharing except phone verification?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

To be honest, I'm not sure. Signal does not have an official f-droid build. They distribute an APK on their website for degoogled devices which allows for websockets to be used as the google notifications systems is not used on degoogled devices, but I'm unsure what it means for the rest of the dependency. Some dependencies can be shipped with the apk so do not require google services to be installed, but an expert should probably shime in to shed some light in this situation specifically.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I believe Signal uses Google Services Framework to send notifications. If you want am even more degoogled Signal, Molly is an amazing project. It's available on Fdroid, possibly using the izzy repository.

https://molly.im/download/fdroid/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

It is a bit complex but at least we can say its safer than Meta. Still looking for sources and if I find something clear, I will add here for other Lemmiers. Thank you and Goodbye.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

No. Signal doesn't have Google service dependencies. Although, you have other problem here that you probably heard before, using a Samsung phone "de-Googled" won't make you free from Google. You should check if possible to get an Pixel with GrapheneOS.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks for reply. I know I can't be totally free from Google. I mean de-Googled as the packages and direct services. My phone model is don't compatible with popular Custom ROMs like Graphene, Lineage, Calyx and /e/ etc. And don't want to use unofficial ones. I mind buying a compatible phone or Pixel. Thanks for advice. Goodbye.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Signal does have dependencies on Google as they are required to handle push notifications on Android (without constant background usage)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yeah, there is that. I don't have push notifications on for Signal and actually for any app