Nowadays, a majority of apps require you to sign up with your email or even worse your phone number. If you have a phone number attached to your name, meaning you went to a cell service/phone provider, and you gave them your ID, then no matter what app you use, no matter how private it says it is, it is not private. There is NO exception to this. Your identity is instantly tied to that account.
Signal is not private. I recommend Simplex or another peer to peer onion messaging app. They don’t require email or phone number. So as long as you protect your IP you are anonymous
Ok government here are the messages i’m legally required to provide you.
If it’s so easy why Lavabit and Silent Circle had to shutdown?
Do you understand what encryption means? Genuine question.
If a company is compelled to spy on its users, it doesn’t mean hack them. (although perhaps there are same edge cases where you have to wonder the exact definition of hacking)
Obviously you are missing the point. Even Gmail is private if you are going to do the job of encrypting your messages by yourself, but that’s irrelevant with what we are discussing here.
What we are discussing here is that if you are a company offering a service of encrypted communications located in the US, the government has all the power to force you to shut down if you don’t give them access to what they want. And that’s not speculation, they’re actively doint it because they are backed by the law.
Why people are so naive thinking that the government are not going to do something to get what they want when the law is on their side, when sometimes they don’t hesitate to do it even when it’s blatantly illegal?
The only way to avoid surveillance is with free, open source and descentralized software. If there is a company in charge of running the software that’s a vulnerability and, like the cases already mentioned, those in power are going to exploit it shutting the service down if the company doesn’t comply.
It doesn’t matter how much you like or trust the service, there’s simply no reason why they wouldn’t do it again when they already dit it successfuly. Why some people who care about privacy can’t see this obvious fact is beyond my understanding.