I saw some threads here about Telegram and piracy stuff being banned. So, as an experimental alternative, I created a public Signal group for piracy.
Maybe it’ll be useful?
Before joining
Signal supports usernames and hiding telephone numbers. Here’s a blog entry on how to do so. You might want to:
- set a username
- change your profile name (these are two separate things!)
- hide your phone number
Good idea overall, unfortunately they still have your IP and phone number which means Europeans are still implicated
Signal doesn’t collect IPs and therefore can’t even hand them out. It’s been requested in 2021. Here’s a list of requests from authorities they were allowed to publish. I’ve looked through 3 of the most recent and nowhere do they reveal IPs.
Sure they don’t log the IPs, but it is technically impossible to not know the IP when you’re running a centralized service.
IIRC, because of sealed sender, they can’t know who you’re communicating with, only that you’re using Signal at all.
I wrote a comment here about why sealed sender does not achieve what it purports to.
I didn’t know that. Thanks
What are the “popular” alternatives? Telegram stores everything, WhatsApp doesn’t allow usernames, Matrix requires IPs too…
SimpleX
Despite their claims of total privacy, I imagine, like any software company, they have full access to their own back end including encryption keys and server logs. Meaning they can and probably will moderate their own platform if there is enough pressure from nation states/IP owners.
You are welcome to audit the source code and host the backend yourself.
You understand that, for everyone except for a complete network pro, that is worse for security and privacy, right?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you can.
But the reason piracy websites struggle so much with long term stability isn’t because they’re hosting the wrong software.
If you don’t put trust on someone something, you left yourself to trust and do all the works. However, you don’t trust yourself either, sadly I can’t offer any solutions.
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TBH I would just use email over TOR and encrypt communication with PGP. Rotate identities every now and then and you should be fine. Yes it doesn’t have forward secrecy but it removes the effort to find the “right messaging” service and is instead ubiquitous (and you can sign up for anonymous email addresses online too, which makes it even better).
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The phone number is not connected to the messages. That’s the only thing they have. It is the best app for privacy.
Arguable in it being “the best app for privacy”. Can you link to a source which shows that phone numbers are not linked to accounts? (Why do they need them anyway?)
They have published requests from the law enforcement and their responses to these requests. The only unencrypted data they have is the phone number, a date of sign up and a date of the last login. That is it, everything else is encrypted and they cannot access it whatsoever.
The problem is, if you’re in Europe, your phone number is associated with your identity
No you don’t.
I can go to the corner shop/local garage right now, buy a SIM card for 99p and then buy a top-up voucher in cash to have a completely anonymous phone number.
Albeit is the UK in Europe again? 🙈
edit: where I would be worried if my privacy was on the line is I could also go to the local pawn shop / Cash Converters to ensure that SIM card isn’t associated with an IMEI I’ve previously used and buy in cash a cheapo phone.
Same in a few other European countries. I’m doing it right now with a few SIMs. You can also go on holiday to another country, get a few temporary SIMs there for a few quid and fly back home with the “contraband”. Really not hard.
The last time I bought a SIM in the UK I was told specifically I could not buy it with cash.
I don’t know if you’re in the UK right now but I can tell you right now that I can go round the corner and buy a SIM card in cash plus a top-up voucher, from someone like this guy
https://www.coregroup.co.uk/assets/img/cards/independent-retail-sim-distribution.jpg
But, again, all they can prove is that you signed up to Signal and when you last signed in.
I believe the same is true in the US.
It is not. You do not show any ID to get a phone number
You also don’t need to show any ID for a business to meet “know-your-customer” regulations. Can you get a phone number without revealing your identity?