I saw some threads here about Telegram and piracy stuff being banned. So, as an experimental alternative, I created a public Signal group for piracy.
Maybe it’ll be useful?
Before joining
Signal supports usernames and hiding telephone numbers. Here’s a blog entry on how to do so. You might want to:
- set a username
- change your profile name (these are two separate things!)
- hide your phone number
Yes, let’s talk piracy behind some stupid walled garden. As if public conversations are not fragmented enough as it is
Signal is a walled garden?
how is it not?
- the worst kind of opensource, where you are not allowed to run the software yourself (or even fork it)
- not indexable
- requires signup with personal informations
- forever tied to a single identity
- not exportable to other services
- no open formats for its storage
it’s a shitty service, by a shitty person. I know Moxie personally, and he is basically Elon Musk if he didn’t make it
Great… Signal is imperfect.
Can you suggest a perfect alternative?
At this point I’m just happy my family have tolerated it to the point we’re not using Facebook Messenger, Google chat (it whatever it’s called this month) and WhatsApp.
The xmpp or whatever other convoluted alternative you’re about to recommend is not something I’m going to get 20 or 30 family and friends to switch to.
Signal is imperfect… But not as bad as many other options.
You might try a Matrix group instead. Doesn’t require a phone number and supports more than 1000 users unlike Signal. Search is bad though unfortunately.
Why not use SimpleX Chat? If you use Matrix for that you will likely get reported and get banned
Go ahead and create the group then make a post. Nobody’s holding you back my friend.
Some suggest matrix, others simplex. Not sure which one would be better honestly
Signal no longer require a phone number.
What is even the point of “piracy groups”? What exactly can you find there that you cannot in other places designed for that, e.g., trackers, usenet, forums…?
It’s like having a discord ‘server’. Nothing gets actually talked about, noteworthy stuffs are hidden beyond layers of clunky mobile UI and everyone’s phone numbers are leaked in the process.
Thanks for doing this
Good idea overall, unfortunately they still have your IP and phone number which means Europeans are still implicated
Signal doesn’t collect IPs and therefore can’t even hand them out. It’s been requested in 2021. Here’s a list of requests from authorities they were allowed to publish. I’ve looked through 3 of the most recent and nowhere do they reveal IPs.
Sure they don’t log the IPs, but it is technically impossible to not know the IP when you’re running a centralized service.
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I didn’t know that. Thanks
What are the “popular” alternatives? Telegram stores everything, WhatsApp doesn’t allow usernames, Matrix requires IPs too…
TBH I would just use email over TOR and encrypt communication with PGP. Rotate identities every now and then and you should be fine. Yes it doesn’t have forward secrecy but it removes the effort to find the “right messaging” service and is instead ubiquitous (and you can sign up for anonymous email addresses online too, which makes it even better).
The phone number is not connected to the messages. That’s the only thing they have. It is the best app for privacy.
Arguable in it being “the best app for privacy”. Can you link to a source which shows that phone numbers are not linked to accounts? (Why do they need them anyway?)
They have published requests from the law enforcement and their responses to these requests. The only unencrypted data they have is the phone number, a date of sign up and a date of the last login. That is it, everything else is encrypted and they cannot access it whatsoever.
The problem is, if you’re in Europe, your phone number is associated with your identity
So what? The law enforcement knows you have an account and knows the sign up date and last login. That doesn’t affect your privacy whatsoever. Besides, Europe isn’t a monolith. You can absolutely buy and use a SIM card without disclosing your name in some countries.
No you don’t.
I can go to the corner shop/local garage right now, buy a SIM card for 99p and then buy a top-up voucher in cash to have a completely anonymous phone number.
Albeit is the UK in Europe again? 🙈
edit: where I would be worried if my privacy was on the line is I could also go to the local pawn shop / Cash Converters to ensure that SIM card isn’t associated with an IMEI I’ve previously used and buy in cash a cheapo phone.
Same in a few other European countries. I’m doing it right now with a few SIMs. You can also go on holiday to another country, get a few temporary SIMs there for a few quid and fly back home with the “contraband”. Really not hard.
Aye, I’ve seen this misconception before and suspect it’s specific countries in the European continent where you have to register.
The last time I bought a SIM in the UK I was told specifically I could not buy it with cash.
I don’t know if you’re in the UK right now but I can tell you right now that I can go round the corner and buy a SIM card in cash plus a top-up voucher, from someone like this guy
https://www.coregroup.co.uk/assets/img/cards/independent-retail-sim-distribution.jpg
Exactly. Signal is private, not anonymous
But, again, all they can prove is that you signed up to Signal and when you last signed in.
I believe the same is true in the US.
It is not. You do not show any ID to get a phone number
You also don’t need to show any ID for a business to meet “know-your-customer” regulations. Can you get a phone number without revealing your identity?
SimpleX all the way
Is there a simplex group we can join?
Tracker Control is blocking me from joining. Weird that Molly (its a hardened signal fork) is showing amazon is being contacted when trying to join the group.
I can unblock it but its weird. I also noticed the other domains its been trying to (unsuccessfully) contact.
Signal uses AWS.
Only for groups? Why thing else has worked fine for the 9months I’ve had signal.
Signal uses Amazon’s servers, look it up. It’s all encrypted of course.
Epic
