[exo762]

You are assuming that Android reports on every step you take. Do you have sources backing this claim?

[jhasse]

It's nearly impossible to find out. But if I trust corporations like Google not to exploit the possibilities, I wouldn't be looking for an open-source alternative to WhatsApp in the first place.

[exo762]

Signal is not positioned as a tool for possible TAO targets. Never was, and never will be. Don't use it and please stop spreading the FUD.

[kuschku]

> Signal is not positioned as a tool for possible TAO targets. Never was, and never will be.

Eh, that’s exactly what it is currently advertised as.

A tool, supported by Snowden, to be used by journalists who are at risk of being under active surveillance by state actors.

That is the very definition of a TAO target.

[jospoortvliet]

You shouldn't use a smartphone if you expect to be TAO. Even the hardware could be compromised. Use a laptop with Linux for anything anyone might want to track...

[kuschku]

Then why is Moxie advertising with Snowden the Signal app as communication for TAO targets?

And for non-TAO targets, WhatsApp is just as good as Signal – the users won’t read the source code anyway, and in both cases President Trump gets your social graph.

[jhasse]

What exactly is a TAO target?

[ethbro]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored_Access_Operations

Aka NSA's "we really need to get access to this device and will fund diverting backbone traffic / writing firmware malware / whatever else we need to in order to get it" team(s).

[Kimm0n0]

Tailored Access Operations from the NSA

[type0]

terrible acronym obviously

[curried_haskell]

Google has root on your phone. Even if they aren't "for now", good security sense says that we should assume that are.

[fnordfnordfnord]

It did formerly via Carrier IQ, which was widely reported in the press. So that's not unprecedented.