Signal App Review:- Instant messaging should be private and secure when you share concerns about your health with your friend that information shouldn't be used by health insurers or big pharma.
To price gouge you at the nearest opportunity and your social graph doesn't belong in the hands of political campaigners trying to manipulate your voting decisions, but that's exactly what's happening when you trust companies like Facebook, Apple, or Google with the content and metadata of your messages.
To have a truly private conversation online your messaging app would have to meet several requirements.
Its messaging protocol has to be built in such a way that you and your contacts are the only people that can access your conversations this has to include their content as well as the metadata.
While apps like iMessage and WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted they only protect the content all of your metadata is exposed in plain text.
The protocol and the app have to be open source the biggest takeaway from the NSA leaks was that all proprietary software has potentially secreted backdoor for the government mass surveillance.
Security experts cannot independently audit the code and we have to blindly trust the developer's words they aren't spying on us.
Encryption in the app has to be seamless and requires no user interaction.
Even the most secure app is only as secure as its weakest link, and in the tech world, that weakest link is humans.
We have a short attention span, bad memory, and are prone to make horrible mistakes, that's why the most secure messenger cannot just be packed with the strongest security features.
It also has to be as user-friendly as possible so, that users won't compromise their security through human error.
Meeting all of these requirements has been the mission of many secure messengers.
What is Signal App?
With the best end-to-end encryption protocol out signal is just as easy to install and use as WhatsApp all you need is a phone number, and that's it.
Who Owns Signal App?
Recently, Elon Musk tweet about the Signal app on Twitter & it's getting attention worldwide.
Signal App Features
With signal, you'll never miss out on any important messaging feature.
As I said before, the signal has plenty of features that make the app extremely useful, but some of my most favorite ones are invisible to a general user.
For instance, signal automatically erases all metadata from your photos before you send them to anyone this includes your stored photos, as well as the ones taken with the signals built-in camera.
That way, you won't accidentally reveal your location to your contacts.
Speaking of the camera app, you can also use it to blur faces or any areas to prevent sharing sensitive information.
You can also resize your picture draw, over type text, use flash, or add these silly little stickers.
And perhaps the most amazing feature is disappearing messages with a simple tweak, you can decide how long each message will stay on your and your contacts devices.
Once they read the message, it will self-destruct anywhere from five seconds up to one week this feature is truly amazing because even if someone was to get a hold of your unlocked phone, they still wouldn't get access to your signal messages.
Signal vs Whatsapp & Facebook vs Telegram
Unlike WhatsApp, the signal doesn't have access to our metadata as it is either encrypted with a key stored on your device or completely absent from signals servers.
The choice is yours with WhatsApp, & Facebook has real-time access to your social graph, which lets Facebook monitor and monetize who you talk to, how long, what time, and date, etc.
There is no other app out there that also encrypts your metadata to this extent Usually, apps only encrypt your data in transit, but once it's on their servers, they can read it in plain text.
So even messengers that provide end-to-end encryption like iMessage or telegram, or WhatsApp expose their metadata to advertisers, hackers, and government surveillance.
And signal never stores their messages in the cloud even if they are encrypted, they're only stored on your device for as long as you don't delete them.
The signal app is free in open source software security experts from around the world are constantly looking at its code to fix bugs and find ways to make it even more secure.
The source code of WhatsApp is a proprietary secret so, you have to trust what scam's word they aren't spying on you or letting the NSA access your data.
While WhatsApp is owned by Facebook.
The signal app is non-profit, and there is no big data company behind it. this is important because while both signal and WhatsApp offer strong end-to-end encryption WhatsApp shares your metadata with Facebook even if you don't have a Facebook account.
Big tech companies have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to perpetually make them more money.
Apple, Google, Facebook, or Microsoft will eventually have to find more invasive ways to monetize their platforms.
Signal has no strings attached, and their developers live off generous donations.
Signal App Issues
In most cases, your phone number is tied to your real-life identity either through your location or the payment method you use to buy a sim card.
In many countries, you also have to provide a government id before obtaining a new phone number this means that most people won't be able to create a signal account anonymously, and advanced attackers can target a signal app user through their phone number.
For some threat models, this makes the use of signal app unacceptable, while it is true that a telecommunications provider or the government could monitor who is using the signal APP.
They would still have to dedicate a significant amount of resources to attack devices of individual users.
Signal has proven to be so secure that the only way it was possible to compromise signal chats was by exploiting a vulnerability in android or ios operating systems rather than the signal app.
Another dimension of using a phone number to register is that if you want to add new contacts you have to share your phone number with them and let apple and google collect your signal contact list.
Signal App Future Updates
Currently, signal developers are working on a feature where you'll be able to store your contacts on signal app servers encrypted with your pin code once fully implemented.
You'll still have to register with a phone number, but you'll be able to create a pseudonym to share with your contacts. Instead of your phone number and rather than giving google and apple access into your signal address book, the signal app will sync box all its metadata including your contacts or app settings within itself.
Initially, this new pin feature with storing metadata in the cloud incited some non-violent backlash because every security expert hates cloud storage.
But as long as you create a strong pin or passcode no one will be able to access your encrypted metadata even when seized.
And if you are really worried about cloud backups, the signal app allows you to disable it in the settings.
Signal App Security & Privacy Settings
In signal app privacy settings, you can further strengthen your security by toggling some settings.
Incognito keyboard screen security and registration lock are the top-recommended ones. with the registration log, you can mitigate the threat of someone registering with your phone number to intercept your messages by locking your phone number with a signals pin.
When it comes to your pin code, you can either choose a digit only pin or a proper alphanumeric passcode there is no cap on how long this pin can be so, take advantage of creating a strong and memorable passphrase.
Signal will automatically remind you to verify your pin, but if this becomes too annoying, you can turn it off just make sure you remember your pin. In case you'll want to register your account on a new install and keep all your contacts and settings.
As long as you're on the same device installation, you can always change your pin without even remembering it.
How To Download Signal App?
How To Invite On Signal App?
Conclusion
There is no excuse not to use the signal app, your conversations and social graph are invaluable, and nobody should be allowed to exploit or profit from them.
Enjoy your private conversation with the new signal messenger app.
Hope, signal app review helps you in anyway. If you are using signal app then please share your experience in comment section below.
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