Google Duo starting to send ads to its users? This behavior has been confirmed by many Reddit users

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/bumq3r/anyone_else_just_get_a_push_notification_ad_from


#duo #ads #google #googleduo #messaging

Using WhatsApp with an Open Source Client

* Whatsapp to Telegram Bridge:
https://ibcomputing.com/whatsapp-telegram-bridge

* WhatsApp to Matrix Bridge:
https://www.matrix.org/blog/2019/02/26/bridging-matrix-with-whatsapp-running-on-a-vm

* WhatsApp CLI:
https://pypi.org/project/whatsapp-cli


📡 @NoGoolag 📡 @Libreware
#whatsapp #telegram #bot #messaging #alternatives

Session

A Signal protocol fork with decentralized servers and no need for a phone number

Session is a cross-platform, anonymous and decentralized messaging application. You don't need a phone number or email address to make an account.

Session uses the Loki Service Node network to route the data, for which the nodes are rewarded with $LOKI. The Loki Network itself is made up of some ~1000 community operated Service Nodes where 44% of the supply is held in the SNs - about US$7.5 million at the moment.

I love Signal, but I don't love the attached phone numbers or central servers, but I know there's a challenge in allowing an altruistic intention over a financial incentive for the node operators - Sybil resistance. By using Loki's Service Node network, the crypto-economics is designed in a way that a bad actor would drive the price exponentially up while trying to accumulate enough Loki to be able to perform any traffic analysis on the routed data.

Think of it as a Signal fork meets a Monero fork meets an incentivized TOR network.

Web: getsession.org

FAQ: getsession.org/faq

Whitepaper:
https://getsession.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Session-Whitepaper.pdf

Sources: github.com/Loki-project

Comments:
http://old.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/f4yt7z/session_a_signal_protocol_fork_with_decentralized/


📡 @NoGoolag 📡 @Libreware
#session #signal #decentralized #im #instant #messaging #alternatives

Because privacy matters ‼️

Secure Messaging Apps Comparison:
https://www.securemessagingapps.com/

#security #privacy #messaging #apps #comparison
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv

As Trump bans WeChat, some in China turn to encrypted messaging app Signal

Signal isn't blocked by the Great Firewall, unlike other encrypted messaging apps including WhatsApp and Telegram.

President Donald Trump's executive order banning American use of WeChat, the most popular app in China, takes effect next month, but some in China are already turning to an American app renowned for its privacy protections.

Downloads for Signal, an encrypted chat app that privacy advocates generally regard as best-in-class for everyday use, are spiking in China, a spokesperson for the app said Friday.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/trump-bans-wechat-some-china-turn-encrypted-messaging-app-signal-n1236184

#us #china #wechat #signal #messaging

Briar can share data via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the Internet.

Briar provides private messaging, public forums and blogs that are protected against the following surveillance and censorship threats:

Internet blackouts.
Metadata surveillance.
Content surveillance.
Content filtering.
Takedown orders.
Denial of service attacks.

Download now!
https://briarproject.org


@AnarchoMemes
#briar #im #instant #messaging #alternatives #p2p #mesh

Why You Should Stop Sending Texts From Your Android Messages App

If there’s a glaring issue with a widely used technology now undergoing a major upgrade, you’d think the glaring issue would be fixed. Well, apparently not. If you’re an Android user, then Google either just has or is just about to update your device’s Messages app with its answer to Apple’s brilliant iMessage. Dubbed RCS or Rich Communication Services, this will update your phone’s basic default messenger into a fully-featured chat platform to compete with iMessage as well as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/08/30/google-android-messages-apple-iphone-ipad-imessage-security-update-sms-rcs-whatsapp-encryption/

#Google #RCS #Android #messaging

Locking down Signal

Concerned about the privacy and security of your communications? Follow our guide to locking down Signal.

The encrypted messaging app, Signal, is quickly becoming a newsroom staple for communicating with sources, accepting tips, talking to colleagues, and for regular old voice calls and messages. While it’s a practical tool for anyone concerned with the security and privacy of their conversations, people working in newsrooms are particularly interesting targets, and should benefit from locking down Signal.

💡 (If you’re not yet using it, learn how to get started here.)

Signal makes it easy to have a secure conversation without thinking about it. On its face, it looks and feels identical to your default text messaging app, but security experts so often recommend it because of what it does in the background.

First, Signal offers end-to-end encryption, meaning only conversational participants can read the messages. While regular phone calls or text messages allow your phone company to unscramble your conversations, even the team behind Signal can’t listen to them. You don’t need to take their word for it. Signal is open source, meaning the code is available for anyone to review. This also makes security audits simpler for independent specialists, who have torn apart the code and published findings that everything works as intended. Finally, Signal retains nearly no metadata — information about who spoke to whom, and when. (The developers proved as much in court.)

These are some of the advantages you want in an encrypted messaging app.

Because newsrooms can attract a lot of attention, journalists who already use Signal should consider hardening it against physical access, as well as unwanted remote access and network-based eavesdropping. So let’s talk about how.

👀 👉🏼 https://freedom.press/training/locking-down-signal/

#signal #encrypted #messaging #app #guide
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
📡@NoGoolag

Step-by-step guides and detailed information on secure messaging apps for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac and Linux.

💡 Apps are listed in order of:

✅✅ = "Highly Recommended"
✅ = "Worth a Try"
❌= "Not Recommended"

👀 👉🏼 https://securechatguide.org/centralizedapps.html

#secure #chat #messaging #apps #android #iOS #windows #mac #linux #guide
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
📡@NoGoolag

Adding Encrypted Group Calls to Signal

...
Free group calls are available starting today. Update your apps to the latest versions to get started. Group calls are only supported in new style Signal groups. You won’t see the call button in your legacy groups, but your legacy Signal groups will start automatically updating to New Groups in the coming weeks. Group calls are currently limited to 5 participants, but we’re working to let you have even more participants in a group call soon. We hope group calls are a helpful new way to connect!

https://signal.org/blog/group-calls/

#signal #messaging #encrypted #group #video #calls

Encrypted Messaging App Signal Sees Surge in Popularity Following WhatsApp Privacy Policy Update

Encrypted messaging app Signal faced big delays in verifying the phone numbers of new accounts on Thursday because of a sudden surge in people trying to join the platform.

In messages posted from its official Twitter account, the non-profit Signal Foundation said verification codes were delayed across several cellular networks, and that it was working through the backlog as quickly as it could.

While the issue is now said to have been resolved, the surge in Signal signups followed recent privacy policy changes highlighted by rival messaging platform WhatsApp.

On Wednesday, WhatsApp began rolling out its latest terms and privacy policy, which allows the popular messaging app to share a significant amount of user data with Facebook. The changes, which are set to take effect on February 8, 2021, are mandatory and users will not be able to continue using WhatsApp unless they accept the terms.

Users who agree to the terms can expect their WhatsApp account registration and phone number, transaction data, service-related information, interaction information, mobile device information, IP address, and other data to be shared with Facebook.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/01/08/messaging-app-signal-sees-surge-signups/

#signal #whatsapp #facebook #messaging #privacy

Horcrux Encrypted Messaging

"Nation states can break some encryption, hack your device, and spy on all communications with their dragnets. How do you send secure messages leveraging adversarial nation-states?

https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-298749-horcrux_encrypted_messaging

#rc3 #ccc #horcrux #encrypted #messaging #video
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
📡@NoGoolag

The End of the Privacy of Digital Correspondence

The EU wants to have all private chats, messages, and emails automatically searched for suspicious content, generally and indiscriminately. The stated aim: To prosecute child pornography. The result: Mass surveillance through fully automated real-time messaging and chat control and the end of secrecy of digital correspondence.

In 2020 the European Commission proposed “temporary” legislation aimed at allowing the search of all private chats, messages, and emails for illegal depictions of minors and attempted initiation of contacts with minors. This is to allow the providers of Facebook Messenger, Gmail, et al, to scan every message for suspicious text and images. This takes place in a fully automated process and using error-prone “artificial intelligence”. If an algorithm considers a message suspicious, its content and meta-data are disclosed automatically and without human verification to a private US-based organization and from there to national police authorities worldwide. The reported users are not notified.

Some U.S. providers of services such as Gmail and Outlook.com are already performing such automated messaging and chat controls. Through a second piece of legislation, the EU Commission intends to oblige all providers of chat, messaging and e-mail services to deploy this mass surveillance technology.

https://www.patrick-breyer.de/?page_id=594160&lang=en

#eu #privacy #masssurveillance #surveillance #messaging #thinkabout
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_FR
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
📡@NoGoolag

Signal finally updates public server code after months of silence

Signal Private Messenger has been a popular messaging platform for years, thanks to its focus on privacy and end-to-end encryption. The project has released the source code for every component of Signal, including the back-end server and client applications, but the public code for the server software was left outdated for months until just today.

Signal stores as little information as possible on remote servers, but there is still a server component for connecting users with phone numbers, sending push notifications, and other functionality. Signal has provided the source code for the server software on GitHub, making it possible for anyone to set up their own independent infrastructure. However, most people simply choose to use Signal’s platform, since communication between the primary server and self-hosted servers (federation) is not supported.

After April 22 of last year, Signal stopped updating the public code repository for its server software. The move was concerning, given that Signal’s open-source nature made it easier to perform security audits and ensure that the platform wasn’t leaking private data. A GitHub issue about the lack of releases was created last month, following other discussions on Reddit and Signal’s own community forum.

While Signal hasn’t yet made a public statement about the gap in code releases, the project finally published hundreds of commits today to the public GitHub repository. The repository now shows many code commits completed throughout 2020 and 2021, bumping the latest-available server version from 3.21 to 5.48.

It’s still not clear why Signal went so long without updating its public server code, especially when the group has historically prided itself on being open and transparent. We’ve reached out to Signal for a statement, and we’ll update our coverage when/if we get a response.

https://www.xda-developers.com/signal-updates-public-server-code/

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server/

#signal #privacy #messaging #sourcecode #servercode #update
📡 @nogoolag 📡 @blackbox_archiv

Et tu, Signal?

Many technologists viscerally felt yesterday’s announcement as a punch to the gut when we heard that the Signal messaging app was bundling an embedded cryptocurrency. This news really cut to heart of what many technologists have felt before when we as loyal users have been exploited and betrayed by corporations, but this time it felt much deeper because it introduced a conflict of interest from our fellow technologists that we truly believed were advancing a cause many of us also believed in. So many of us have spent significant time and social capital moving our friends and family away from the exploitative data siphon platforms that Facebook et al offer, and on to Signal in the hopes of breaking the cycle of commercial exploitation of our online relationships. And some of us feel used.

Signal users are overwhelmingly tech savvy consumers and we’re not idiots. Do they think we don’t see through the thinly veiled pump and dump scheme that’s proposed? It’s an old scam with a new face.

Allegedly the controlling entity prints 250 million units of some artificially scarce trashcoin called MOB (coincidence?) of which the issuing organization controls 85% of the supply. This token then floats on a shady offshore cryptocurrency exchange hiding in the Cayman Islands or the Bahamas, where users can buy and exchange the token. The token is wash traded back and forth by insiders and the exchange itself to artificially pump up the price before it’s dumped on users in the UK to buy to allegedly use as “payments”. All of this while insiders are free to silently use information asymmetry to cash out on the influx of pumped hype-driven buys before the token crashes in value. Did I mention that the exchange that floats the token is the primary investor in the company itself, does anyone else see a major conflict of interest here?

Let it be said that everything here is probably entirely legal or there simply is no precedent yet. The question everyone is asking before these projects launch now though is: should it be?

I think I speak for many technologists when I say that any bolted-on cryptocurrency monetization scheme smells like a giant pile of rubbish and feels enormously user-exploitative. We’ve seen this before, after all Telegram tried the same thing in an ICO that imploded when SEC shut them down, and Facebook famously tried and failed to monetize WhatsApp through their decentralized-but-not-really digital money market fund project.

https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/signal.html

#signal #privacy #messaging #cryptocurrency #payment #thinkabout
📡 @nogoolag 📡 @blackbox_archiv

Signal adopts MobileCoin, a crypto project linked to its own creator Moxie Marlinspike

Many technologists today were disappointed to learn that Signal, an encrypted messaging service, is adopting MobileCoin (MOB), a new cryptocurrency that went live in December, for payments.

Signal is hugely popular in the tech world. I use it, and many of the people I correspond with use it as a safe and secure way of communicating. And many prefer it over WhatsApp and Telegram.

Now, the non-profit wants to take the next step into becoming a payments service—so you can send money, and nobody will know who you are sending it to, or why. Here’s the blog post announcing the beta build.

Andy Greenberg wrote up a story in Wired covering the main points of the announcement yesterday. The idea is to have a cryptocurrency designed to work efficiently on mobile devices while protecting users’ privacy—and anonymity. For now, Signal’s payment feature will be available only to users in the UK, and only on iOS and Android—not the desktop.

What is worth underscoring is that Moxie Marlinspike, the creator of Signal and CEO of the nonprofit that runs it, was a paid advisor to MobileCoin. In fact, he was the original CTO of the company, according to an early MobileCoin white paper.

https://amycastor.com/2021/04/07/signal-adopts-mobilecoin-a-crypto-project-linked-to-its-own-creator-moxie-marlinspike/

💡 MobileCoin white paper
https://mixin.one/assets/MobileCoin-Whitepaper-EN_FINAL.pdf

#signal #privacy #messaging #cryptocurrency #payment #marlinspike #thinkabout
📡 @nogoolag 📡 @blackbox_archiv

Update on beta testing payments in Signal

As the world stands today, the future of transaction privacy does not look great. The existing landscape is dominated by traditional credit companies, who over the past decade have been steadily pushing their networks for increased access to user data. They (and their data customers) are on a track to getting SKU level data of every purchase everyone makes everywhere. There are other contenders, such as regional online payments networks (like Venmo in the US), but the data story there is similar.

This is not a future we are particularly excited about. At Signal, we want to help build a different kind of tech – where software is built for you rather than for your data – so these are trends that we watch warily.

https://signal.org/blog/update-on-beta-testing-payments/

#signal #privacy #messaging #cryptocurrency #payment #thinkabout
📡 @nogoolag 📡 @blackbox_archiv

Facebook Pushes Ahead with Plans for Full End-to-End Encryption of its Messaging Tools

Despite ongoing concerns about the proposal among various authorities, Facebook is pushing ahead with its plan to implement full end-to-end encryption by default within all of its messaging tools.

Within an overview of a recent virtual workshop Facebook held with experts in privacy, safety, human rights and consumer protection, the company noted that:

"We’re working hard to bring default end-to-end encryption to all of our messaging services. This will protect people’s private messages and mean only the sender and recipient, not even us, can access their messages. While we expect to make more progress on default end-to-end encryption for Messenger and Instagram Direct this year, it’s a long-term project and we won’t be fully end-to-end encrypted until sometime in 2022 at the earliest."


The news of Facebook's continued work on this front will please privacy advocates - but as noted, various authorities have raised significant concerns with the plan, with respect to how such a process could be used to hide criminal activity, with no way for authorities to track such exchanges.

https://telegra.ph/Facebook-Pushes-Ahead-with-Plans-for-Full-End-to-End-Encryption-of-its-Messaging-Tools-05-01

via www.socialmediatoday.com

#facebook #DeleteFacebook #encryption #messaging
📡 @nogoolag 📡 @blackbox_archiv

SplinterNet

Android app designed to create an unblockable Twitter like network that uses no cellular or Internet communications. All messages are transmitted over Bluetooth between users, creating a true peer-to-peer messaging system. All messages are anonymous to prevent retaliation by government authorities.

SplinterNet is a true peer-to-peer network in that it requires physical proximity to other people to transmit messages. In the current version this happens over a close range Bluetooth connection. To illustrate how SplinterNet works, here is an example scenario:

You take a picture of a protest happening near your home.
Fearing a spread of the protest the government shuts down cellular and Internet access to most citizens.
You write a short message about the protest in SplinterNet and attach the picture.
When you next meet with your friends, you sync SplinterNet with them. They now have your photo and will spread it to their friends.
You also now have all their messages, which includes photos taken of protests happening in other parts of the country.
Any person who can reach a working Internet connection can post all of these photos to any sharing service or send directly to journalists to publicize.
If you fear capture, you can press a single button and all the messages in your copy of SplinterNet are deleted.

Features
Create a post with text and an optional single image.
Mark posts as important to increase their spread within the network. These posts will be sent first during syncing and will be highlighted for the people you sync with.
Delete posts to stop their spread. The contents of the network reflect what users of the network think is important and appropriate. You don't have to spread anything you don't want to.

Project Status
This is an experimental project still in development. All of the features listed here should work, they just haven't been tested in large networks. Please let us know how it works!

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/megamattron/SplinterNet/master/other/splinterNet-infosheet.png

https://github.com/megamattron/SplinterNet


📡 @nogoolag 📡 @libreware
#SplinterNet #im #messaging #p2p #bt #bluetooth

#messaging apps comparison charts

https://bkil.gitlab.io/secuchart/

http://supernovas.space/messengers.html

https://berty.tech/faq

https://www.securemessagingapps.com/

#im