cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/34598392
FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday that he had opened an investigation into the Signal group text chats that Minnesota residents are using to share information about federal immigration agents’ movements, launching a new front in the Trump administration’s conflict there with potential free speech implications.
Patel said in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that he wanted to know whether any Minnesota residents had put federal agents “in harm’s way” with activities such as sharing agents’ license plate numbers and locations.
As others have mentioned, Signal is secure.
You need to set the group chat messages to auto-delete after a set amount of time. If you’re really concerned, set it for hours instead of days. That way if these terrorists abduct you and force you to unlock your phone, they have a very limited pool of messages to view.
If the group chat has been infiltrated though they can simply log the messages.
He’s keeping an eye on us, we just can’t figure out which one.
“Don’t protect yourself or others, even peacefully. You’re obstructing the oppression.”
Its a government contractor sourced wrench, so theres no way it cost less than $500
Shouldn’t this guy deport himself because he’s not 100% American? His name and surname says it all.
My region's context, may be irrelevant.
I’m saying this because right at our border is a certain country famous for its beer has a prime minister that is Slovak and a leader of a certain political party is Japanese and he wants to solve illegal migration to their country.
Great use of spoiler
At this point “uses signal” is all the metadata they need.
This guy permanently looks like he’s having an existential crisis and I can’t help but wonder if it’s because he’s metaphorically the only Jew left in the Nazi bar.
Anal plug
Are you saying that, when they come for him, he will “present” himself to avoid being caught up and they will beat his ass, despite it?
I’m actually happy I’m not the only one who has beat off on this fantasy.
A lot of “investigations” going on. Call me when they successfully bring charges
Boy I sure hope those people aren’t using their real names or phone numbers…they should absolutely NOT be using Signal for this purpose. This kind of thing is why SimpleX exists.
joined the chats
Typically, law enforcement officers access Signal chats by obtaining a group chat member’s unlocked phone, being directly included in the group chat, or receiving copies from a participant.
From The Guardian: "The FBI has allegedly claimed that information related to the “courtwatch” Signal chat was given to them by a “sensitive source with excellent access” and said that they filed the report as a warning about “extremist actors targeting law enforcement officers and federal facilities.”
Signal itself Is secure. Like everything, however, human elements can still be penetrated. No protocol no matter how secure can protect you from a spy infiltrating a group, or a group member being coerced into handing over the content of the chats.
Signal itself Is secure.
I didn’t say it wasn’t. The problem is when exactly this happens and then people doxx themselves in the chat.
No protocol no matter how secure can protect you from a spy infiltrating a group
SimpleX protects you by not requiring a phone number, and by supporting multiple and anonymous accounts.
Or even PeerSuite for that matter, moreso if a PeerSuite session is additionally ran through an anonymous protocol like I2P, assuming that’s possible. I mean, PeerSuite doesn’t require an account, doesn’t use servers, talks through encrypted WebRTC channels, and doesn’t leave a paper trail by default, coordinating protests is a perfect use case for it because people could start up a session to plan said protest, and then close the session without a trace when they’re done.
At this point, I don’t even know why Signal shouldn’t be used here. But I’m so sick of the stream of good apps that enshitify and get replaced by apps that also enshitify. I assume something like that has happened here. Is nobody left on this fucking planet that will stand up for the things they believe in?
don’t even know why Signal shouldn’t be used here
Because Signal does not support anonymity. If someone joins the group using their real name they also happen to use in their personal lives, they’ve just doxxed themselves and painted targets on their backs.
But doesn’t Signal support disappearing messages? And end to end encryption? Meaning they’d need a recipient’s phone in order to see them at all. Although, now that I’m thinking it through in this context of a big group chat full of people you don’t/barely know, I can see the higher risk profile. So it’s bad in this circumstance, assuming messages are persistent.
Disappearing messages are a client side convention, they are not part of the protocol, they cannot be enforced. There are signal clients that never expire messages, screen capture, archive, etc
Yeah, I used to be in a group where I’m pretty sure a couple people were informants or agents. A couple people would fed-post in the Signal group sometimes.There were leaks that showed the FBI was indeed “monitoring” the group. I suspect any lefty group is infiltrated is some way.
But doesn’t Signal support disappearing messages?
Yes, and? It also supports screenshots.
Meaning they’d need a recipient’s phone in order to see them at all.
Which is what they have.
I’m surprised screenshots are allowed in the app at all, that’s indeed pretty shit.
By default they’re not but I mean you could just pick up another camera and take a picture of the screen anyway, so you’re not really preventing anything by disabling it.
Right, so how do the other solutions solve this problem then? Kinda undercutting your own security argument with ways that NOTHING is actually secure.
