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Signal tests usernames that keep your phone number private
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this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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This is a feature that Session had right?
You know what Session also has? Well it ain't forward secrecy.
True but I don't think its that bad
how so?
Session will use full onion routing and it should hide most metadata from your communications. It also uses strong encryption so it should be hard to brute force the encryption
while the following is not really my threat model, wouldn’t a person who’s being targeted, say a journalist/activist, have a higher chance of their device being compromised (possibly even physically)? If so, would Session still be a valid option for them?
Session does NOT use the tor network. They use their own, smaller, way easier to take over network.
I never said they used the Tor network. I just said they use onion routing over lokinet. Lokinet is pretty powerful and is much faster than Tor. In the future we may see other messaging apps use lokinet assuming it works well and is secure
And I did not say you said that. Thatdoes not matter though, as what I say still stands. The network they use for onion routing is incredibly weak. Even Tor isn't as powerful a network as most would think.
Also: Speed does not matter. Speed ≠ strength.
Speed does matter though. You can't video call over Tor because its slow.
Lokinet also is smaller in popularity than Tor so it will have less nodes. Hopefully it will scale. I personally am kind of interested in running a node as it looks like it could be profitable
Session doesn't use phone numbers at all.
Neither does Briar or SimpleX
love me some briar, but signal is a legitimately decent privacy focued app with serious mindshare, adoption and ux/ui features. I love them both, but unless the other person is a technophile, signal is my go to recommendation and briar remains my "secret club" app.
My exact use case haha. Became invaluable when the internet was unavailable. Used my phone's hotspot to create a wlan, then used it to communicate with those I needed to. Communicate internetlessly with your nearby groups, brought to you by Briar.
So if Im at a music festival or something similar and I dont have phone service I can still just make a hotspot and send messages out through the hotspot signal?? Thats so awesome if Im understanding that correctly
Only if those you're sending to are also on the same hotspot signal. Basically, you're creating a local wifi network, and Briar works over WLAN.
You would likely face another issue in that scenario: briar + hotspot draining your battery.
Hmm, could you elaborate on this? What was your exact use case for Briar, how did it help solve it, and what were the challenges?
We were with several other groups and had no internet, but needed to communicate through text. Briar filled the gap with its ability to communicate internetlessly through a local network (as long as the others are on the same network). Creating a hotspot with one phone and connecting the others makes a wlan with your group inside. Could you tell me what I'm missing from my explanations? I'd be happy to elaborate further if I knew.
I don’t have any real experience with Briar, so I wanted to learn more. How far were able to spread apart and it still worked? How many of you were a part of the group?
We were only 4 and stayed pretty close together, but there were a bunch of people around, so we needed text communication. My phone can only handle 5 connected devices throughout about a 250ft unhindered radius (100ft realistically), but if you had a real wifi network, you could add a lot more people and spread out much further.
E: we did have a member drop off several times because he was beyond the threshold, but he automatically reconnected when he got close enough.
Thank you for the additional context!
Anytime, my friend!
True but I like where session is headed