Pavel Durov on Signal

Expert4870:

If you are not messaging friends and family who are likely to have their phones taken by the FBI, I wouldn’t worry about it.

…and if I am? Unfortunately, I think a lot of people I know are at higher risk of such than they realize.

crossroads:

No, and there won’t be. Regardless of service used, the only way is that all participants in conversation are equally aware of risks and consequences.

To a certain extent, yes, of course. Everyone should be aware of the risks and consequences. But at the same time, I can still see something like this helping to reduce risk.

crossroads:

It is similar with 3rd party apps and matrix bridges. You can not be sure what other side is using on their device. Even you agree to use e.g. Signal, without notification messages, they can install some malware app, leave unlocked phone on train station, etc.

For example, it is much easier for me to personally verify that they install a legitimate version of Signal than to make sure they keep a specific setting enabled. From there, their OS and app store can make sure updates are valid. They could install some other malware, yes, or leave their phone unlocked in public, yes, but those are both situations that I think are more likely to be immediately and obviously unwanted by the average person, and they are more likely to want to prevent such things actively without my pressuring them to do so.

crossroads:

Maybe solution is to call (via Signal) and say important thing, or even better, meet in person.

For particularly important things, yes. But even outside of that, I think it would be nice to be able to do so for things that are “potentially risky to say, perhaps in the future if not now”. I am not terribly concerned that the FBI is going to find out that I tell my mom I love her. If I were telling her about my plot to take over the world, obviously I would be. If I were discussing politics in general with her? It would seem like overkill to both of us to meet in person or call every time such a topic came up, but at the same time, it isn’t completely out there to think that discussions about politics could put us at risk at some point in the future.

At the end of the day, it isn’t a huge deal for me, personally, but I do think it would be a relatively cheap feature to add (as the machinery to hide the contents of a notification already exist), and I can only see it improving the situation, or at worst, making no difference.