Subj : Re: Signal messenger - anyone?
To   : August Abolins
From : Wilfred van Velzen
Date : Fri Jan 01 2021 06:21 pm

Hi August,

On 2021-01-01 10:48:00, you wrote to me:

 AA>>> WhatsApp is owned by FB now, isn't it?  If so, I'd drop it.

 WvV>> Afaik it is. And would be something I would avoid as much
 WvV>> as possible. Except I have no real choic in the matter,
 WvV>> because I'm required to have it on my (company) phone...

 AA> Ah.. then that's a different story.  But why can't your company
 AA> [1] influence a move to the less evasive Telegram or Signal for
 AA> example? They could broadcast an annoucement that a phase-over to
 AA> one of the other apps is encouraged and a full migration is
 AA> expected to take by a specif date.. OR.. [2] introduce new policy
 AA> to use Telegram/Signal for its new customers/clients?

They probably can, but they don't want to...

 AA> But the whole thing is probably one of those situations were the
 AA> 1st-use scenario wins. Therefore, why bother with the tedious
 AA> hassle of installing something else and have to reestablish the
 AA> contacts from another app - especially for exisiting customers.

Indeed.

 WvV>> I think privacy awareness is getting better. But people
 WvV>> still choose the easy way. Instead of trying to convince
 WvV>> others to use the better option, they just use what's
 WvV>> already available/installed/used by most people.

 AA> That reminds me when the various chat programs like ICQ, Jabber,
 AA> iChat, Pidgin, AIM, etc.. were all present and different people
 AA> chose to use a specific chat program for specific reasons they
 AA> had. I encountered the same split of different chat programs with
 AA> select contacts. But I think it was Pidgin that helped to
 AA> consolidate the other chat accounts into one program. That was
 AA> sweet.

Or the VHS vs Betamax thing! ;)

 AA> It's same install issue with Signal. Since I have to install it
 AA> on the phone to even qualify to try it, I need to have the .APK
 AA> version.  I think I found the legit file as version 5.0.8 here:

 AA> https://signal.org/android/apk/

 AA>    ..but the SHA256 that I get doesn't match what they report on
 AA> the site:

 AA> "You can verify the signing certificate on the APK matches this
 AA> SHA256 fingerprint:

 AA> 29:F3:4E:5F:27:F2:11:B4:24:BC:5B:F9:D6:71:62:C0
 AA> EA:FB:A2:DA:35:AF:35:C1:64:16:FC:44:62:76:BA:26

 AA> But I guess the SHA256 above is for the "certificate", not the
 AA> file itself?

 AA> Why can't everyone just stick with MD5 or SHA256 for the "files"
 AA> and avoid having us to find other apps to read certificates!

MD5 Is no longer considered secure, as a hash algorithm!

 AA> But another problem persists. The $5 top up + 200MB is supposed
 AA> to allow me to cruise at 3G speeds.  But the best that I am
 AA> getting now is 36Kbps!

 AA> This shit is way overpriced.

Indeed.

 AA>>> I like Telegram's offerings across ALL devices, especially
 AA>>> the desktop. The desktop version permits much better
 AA>>> editing performance.

 WvV>> I like it too!

 AA> It's especially nice to be able to adjust the colours and the
 AA> backgrounds. Does Signal have that?

I don't know. As I said, I hardly ever used it...


Bye, Wilfred.

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