[autoexec]

> Lots of reasons recently to develop deep distrust for Signal leadership, and start calling into question whether the app is still legitimately private.

How about when Signal started storing people's contacts, their name, their photo, and their phone number in the cloud ignoring cries from their users that Signal should provide a way to opt out and bringing up security concerns, then refusing to update their privacy policy to reflect the new data collection meaning that for years now they've been outright lying to people about what data is being collected and how it's used. That was when I moved off the platform.

If you want private/secure consider looking elsewhere.

[anonporridge]

> If you want private/secure consider looking elsewhere.

Already on it.

Just such a shame that after years of trying to convince friends and family to use signal, I now have to convince them to use something else.

Oh well, that might just be the natural circle of life.

[autoexec]

I know, I was also a fan and had to go to friends and family and advise against using Signal after I'd told them years ago how great it was. You're right though, every great application seems the grow until it turns to trash and needs to replaced with something else. Very few apps escape that cycle. VLC is one of the good ones holding out.

[jakecopp]

> Just such a shame that after years of trying to convince friends and family to use signal, I now have to convince them to use something else.

This is the beauty of Matrix - you can change your client, or even your server and keep all your contacts!

[barbs]

Do you have sources for the contact upload and privacy policy stuff?

[autoexec]

https://community.signalusers.org/t/proper-secure-value-secu...

They started storing user data in the cloud and never updated their privacy policy even though it's been brought to their attention. (https://community.signalusers.org/t/can-signal-please-update...)

The very first line of their privacy policy reads: "Signal is designed to never collect or store any sensitive information" which is a total lie. For someone like a human rights activist or a whistleblower a list of all their Signal contacts is absolutely "sensitive information". It really used to be true that they didn't collect and store anything, but it hasn't been the case now for years!

If this is the first time you're hearing about the data Signal is collecting and storing in the cloud that should tell you all you need to know about how much they can be trusted.