this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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Privacy

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Even State Department-funded Human Rights Watch admits that authorities combine legal and illegal methods to obtain convictions: https://text.hrw.org/report/2018/01/09/dark-side/secret-origins-evidence-us-criminal-cases

Combining dragnet surveillance with device hacking is intended in the design of both tools. Hence, State Department-funded Signal dupes you into handing over your identity as part of the population-centric mapping. In custody, your phone will be hacked when it is taken away if it's important.

https://xcancel.com/hannahcrileyy/status/2034273723667161480#m

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[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 4 points 12 hours ago

Helping an old grandma up, is cause enough for execution by ICE on the spot.

[–] RosaLuxemburgsGhost@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago

The Prairieland case was an important case for the capitalist state of US Imperialism. It was a litmus test, a threat, to all people who dare criticize and challenge its rule within the belly of the beast. Just like the Iran war, which is about control over the region, and beating back any neo-colonial governments who don’t fall in line with the wishes of US Imperialism….this is the US government waging similar class war at home.

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago

Privacy is proof of terrorism. The state, and it's corporate allies, need to have access to your innermost thoughts, the things about you even you don't know, for national security reasons. This is totally normal and not something to resist. Vote republican.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Everyone should just wear all blue or some other colour

[–] hamid@crazypeople.online 20 points 1 day ago

Non whites know they make up shit all the time to put people in prison, nothing new here for the shit hole country

[–] Kirk@startrek.website 146 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (12 children)

This is total alarmist misinformation. The "evidence of terrorism" was not "using Signal" or "carrying a first aid kit", it was taking part in an armed assault on an immigration facility where a dozen people set off fireworks and shot a police officer with an AR-15.

The prosecution used the presence of the first aid kit they carried during their armed assault, along with actual messages (not metadata) from a Signal chat to make the case that the attackers planned on using violence.

There are a lot of problems with this case, IMO the most dangerous part here is that adds legitimacy the (false) idea that "antifa" is an organization that exists. Something the Trump administration has been struggling to prove. This X post takes small details out of context.

  1. Don't trust anything ever posted to X. Especially something that discourages the use of private messaging apps.

  2. I highly recommend everyone report this this post to your admins and strongly recommend all instance admins ban/warn accounts like OP. If we want the fediverse to catch on it needs to be more factual, not knee jer.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 59 points 2 days ago (2 children)

it was taking part in an armed assault on an immigration facility where a dozen people set off fireworks and shot a police officer with an AR-15.

based

[–] astraeus@lemmy.ml 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Whoever they think did it They didn’t do it we were bowling together at that time

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[–] better_world@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 day ago

John Brown approves

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 53 points 2 days ago (14 children)

The prosecution used the presence of the first aid kit they carried

Insane bullshit.

I have a kit with me every day of my life, and I've had to refill it many times due to using it on others.

It would be pure coincidence that I happen to be carrying a first aid kit on any given day, and if I'm going to a peaceful protest I'm bringing my trauma kit because the entire fucking world knows how cops treat protesters.

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If you were ever in such a situation, I'm sure your lawyer would present the fact that you always have a first aid kit with you to challenge it's relevance. People who know you could be brought in to testify as such.

On the other hand, if you don't generally carry a first aid kit but brought one to the protest alongside the other listed items, it does seem indicative of intent.

There was just a news story that Denmark was (among other activities) stocking up on blood supplies in Greenland. That's not an unusual thing for a military to do, but it's pretty obvious that they were preparing to fight US forces. That's obviously not a crime, but the logical connections to intent are similar.

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[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 2 days ago (16 children)

I really don't get the big "use signal" push at this point in time because even if it's private and the encryption is solid, it's a fucking American company. It's so easy for letter agencies to get information on their users from them, don't you realize that they can't refuse to give out your number if they ask for it and that once they have that your identity and location are immediately and thoroughly compromised? If you are subject to US jurisdiction and could be seen in any way as opposing its government, I really don't think you should be using it.

Because the other options most people are aware of are by and large even worse? Would you prefer people were sending this shit over Facebook messenger?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All giving out your number provides is that you have ever used Signal.

They're saying ever using a private chat service is terrorism. That's not really on Signal.

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago (3 children)

All your phone number provides is that you have ever used signal? Not what tower you're connected to and therefore approximate realtime location? Your full identity via your telco? Social graph and history of your calls and texts?

I'm not saying it's their fault or that they are volunteering any information, but that's how it is for any US-based corporation (doesn't matter if it's a nonprofit, any legal entity that can be subpoenaed)

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The government already has access to every phone number in existence. They can already track every phone to figure out who attended a protest or whatever. Filtering down to "all phone numbers who've ever connected to Signal" doesn't exactly narrow anything down. They don't have any metadata about who you were chatting with.

[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 day ago

The government already has access to every phone number in existence

They used to publish them in big books, even

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[–] jabberwock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is fundamentally not how Signal works, but you are generally correct in that a phone number has been shown to provide a lot of context for a person (or a device, at least). But Signal (the app) only uses a phone number for initial verification of an account. You have a lot of options to break that association with you - use a landline and get a call verification code, use a VoIP number (assuming you trust the provider), use a burner SIM, etc.

Once you have an account, you can choose to identify yourself on the network solely via username so the registration number is not presented to other users. The Signal protocol itself is well-audited and generally secure.

If your issue is with Signal the American company, use an open source fork like Molly with your own UnifiedPush instance. Then you're only trusting them with transport of your encrypted messages, which again have shown to be secure at least in public audits.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 hours ago

I was putting my kid on Signal to join the family chat, he didn't have service, so we just used wifi. I don't know for sure that this hasn't changed, but when I tried, they refused a google voice account and also refused an sms api acct. I dug into it some more and it appears you have to install it on a phone with cellular service, it needs to read your phone's ID.

I tried deactivating my phone, activating his acct on my phone with Google Voip, then moving it to his tablet. It would work for about a week then stop.

I dug through a bunch of reddit and group threads on it, you simply could not activate it without a real SMS and a cellular link with all the ID's.

We eventually got him an apple watch with service, and it allowed that SMS in concert with my phone. Then I installed on his tablet and put my phone back to me. Once in a blue moon, it'll make him reverify with SMS from the watch, but it works and doesn't require my phone with service anymore.

It might just be something about google's voip which a lot places refuse, but it also refused twillio.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it all does not matter when most people register with their primary phone number that is already tied to their name

[–] Paulemeister@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I still don't get it. What is bad about signing up with your phone number? All readable Info that governments can force out of Signal is. "Yep this guy uses Signal, signed up last year" so nothing is lost (except if they use that as a sign you are a terrorist, but then they just wanted to monitor you anyway in the first place)

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

except if they use that as a sign you are a terrorist, but then they just wanted to monitor you anyway in the first place

exactly. what is the question?

also its not "monitor me" and "monitor you", but "monitor whoever is using the service" more closely, and as it seems, retaliate against them.

[–] Paulemeister@feddit.org 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

The question is: What privacy do I loose by signing up to Signal with a phone number instead of hypothetically a username.

If you are being monitored, they know your phone number. With that they know you are using Signal, but nothing more. Messaging through Signal is safe.

If you are not being monitored, nobody knows you are using Signal. Messaging through Signal is safe

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The question is: What privacy do I loose by signing up to Signal with a phone number instead of hypothetically a username.

if you could sign up with a username, your account couldn't be linked to a real world identity. also the government wouldn't have a phone number to send state malware to (unlike signal the telephony system is full of security vulnerabilities)

If you are being monitored, they know your phone number.

if you personally are monitored then yes they know your phone number. but here it's the other way around. you became a person of interest because you use signal.

If you are not being monitored, nobody knows you are using Signal.

no. everybody who has the power to issue data requests to signal, and also has access to a database binding phone numbers to identities, knows that you are using signal.

[–] Paulemeister@feddit.org 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Ah ok now I get what you mean. Hashing for phone numbers is ineffective so it's a two way lookup. Is the population using Signal small enough that this doesn't just equate to surveiling everybody?

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 hours ago

very few people use signal

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[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

i'm convinced the big push for signal is a CIA op. not that it's necessarily signal's fault, it could be and it could not, but setting signal as the defacto private alternative is weird.

better than whatsapp at least i guess, but that's a low ass bar to clear.

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[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 62 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A reminder that your phone number is metadata. And people who think metadata is "just" data or that cross-referencing is some kind of sci-fi nonsense, are fundamentally misunderstanding how modern surveillance works.

By requiring phone numbers, Signal, despite its good encryption, inherently builds a social graph. The server operators, or anyone who gets that data, can see a map of who is talking to whom. The content is secure, but the connections are not.

Being able to map out who talks to whom is incredibly valuable. A three-letter agency can take the map of connections and overlay it with all the other data they vacuum up from other sources, such as location data, purchase histories, social media activity. If you become a "person of interest" for any reason, they instantly have your entire social circle mapped out.

Worse, the act of seeking out encrypted communication is itself a red flag. It's a perfect filter: "Show me everyone paranoid enough to use crypto." You're basically raising your hand.

So, in a twisted way, Signal being a tool for private conversations, makes it a perfect machine for mapping associations and identifying targets. The fact that it operates using a centralized server located in the US should worry people far more than it seems to.

The kicker is that thanks to gag orders, companies are legally forbidden from telling you if the feds come knocking for this data. So even if Signal's intentions are pure, we'd never know how the data it collects is being used. The potential for abuse is baked right into the phone-number requirement.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

In theory warrant canaries could have been used, but Marlinspike has an excuse for everything.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

yeah that makes the whole thing even more sketch, I love how he never replies to the EFF link too

[–] akilou@sh.itjust.works 57 points 2 days ago (5 children)

We're supposed to take privacy advice from someone posting on X?

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[–] Lussy@hexbear.net 29 points 2 days ago (2 children)

worn black to a protest

used Signal

carried a first aid kit

lol shrug-outta-hecks

The laws are made up and we’ve always been fucked. We always knew that

[–] sakuraba@lemmy.ml 21 points 2 days ago

every goth tech nurse is a terrorist

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[–] theherk@lemmy.world 40 points 2 days ago (4 children)

More anti-signal propaganda? Who is claiming it can’t be associated to a user. The messages are private, not anonymous.

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[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

The places tyrants can't see into is where the threats come from.

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