this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
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Privacy
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Signal is the only app on that list whose app is open source. That means it can be audited to see if they are telling the truth.
You cannot say the same for the others and you just have to take them at their word. Should we take Facebook at their word?
It's also the only app on the list managed by a 501(c)3 non-profit, so you can additionally check where their money goes.
That's true! I can't wait to "shoot" back with arguments :-)
Also the FBI took signal to court and the only data they could provide was the date of signup and last login timestamp
This is an important extra point: being open source, a government can’t secretly mandate a back door, because everyone would be able to see it. For the other options listed, there are no guarantees.
They can put the backdoor in themselves though, see the recent xz backdoor. But the question is whether it would be found out or not.
xz backdoor rely on two testfile with malware, some script that do specific thing to malware to unmask and inject. If commit later change any part to break backdoor, signal probably forced to reject to keep backdoor.
But why reject good change? Might raise red flag.
xz almost worked because it was in something nobody was looking at. Signal code is audited regularly.