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Encryption App Signal Wins Fight Against FBI Subpoena and Gag Order (dailydot.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Daily Dot: Signal, widely considered the gold standard of encrypted messaging apps, was put to the test earlier this year when a FBI subpoena and gag order that demanded a wide range of information on two users resulted in a federal grand jury investigation in Virginia. The makers of Signal, Open Whisper Systems, profoundly disappointed law enforcement. The app collects as little data as possible and therefore was unable to hand anything useful over to agents. "That's not because Signal chose not to provide logs of information," ACLU lawyer Brett Kaufman told the Associated Press. "It's just that it couldn't." "The Signal service was designed to minimize the data we retain," Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Open Whisper Systems, told the New York Times. The subpoena came with a yearlong gag order that was successfully challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union. Signal's creators challenged the gag order as unconstitutional, "because it is not narrowly tailored to a compelling government interest." The challenge was successful. In addition to being popularly considered the best consumer encrypted messaging app available, Signal's technology is used by Facebook for Secret Conversations, WhatsApp for encrypted messages, and Google's Allo. Confronted with the subpoena, Marlinspike went to the ACLU for legal counsel. The ACLU responded with a letter saying that even though Signal did not have data the FBI sought, it still strenuously objected (PDF) to the fact the FBI wanted so much information.
I bet their business will pick up with a sterling endorsement from the ACLU.
s/ Yeah, those sneaky bastards having the unmitigated gall to actually stand by principles to protect their users when challenged which tends to engender trust in return from their users!
I mean, how low will some people go, right? 'Principles' are nothing but unscrupulous marketing tools and obstacles to the smooth and efficient functioning of the government, and therefor should be abolished! /s
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
It says it needs access to:
Device & App History
[snip]
All the permissions Signal requires are explained here. They all make sense in context, and many can be disabled without affecting normal use (e.g. location, calendar, camera, etc.).
To answer your question about SMS in particular, OWS says "Signal is capable of functioning as a complete replacement to your phone’s stock messaging application. In order to do this, it needs to be able to send and receive text messages (both SMS and MMS). You can also import your existing messages into Signal when it is first installed, and these permissions allow that database to be read as well."
I'm afraid your sarcasm will fall on deaf ears. Over 30 years of right wing pro corporate and cop worshipping propaganda have made some people react negatively to the mere mention of the term ACLU. Most of them can't even articulate a valid and actually factual reason why they hate that organization.
This trait of ignorant subservience to propaganda sadly is now adopted by a lot of shrill people on the left now when asked why they dislike Trump. So now both sides sport tons of ignorant idiots.
It's fine to dislike something or someone, but having a visceral reaction without knowing why is a problem, not a badge of honor. Anti intellectualism just keeps chugging along.
There's no argument you're going to be able to use because you just can't fix stupid.
Most of them can't even articulate a valid and actually factual reason why they hate that organization.
I have no particular love for the ACLU. They seem to be only interested in protecting *some* rights. Others, like the 2nd Amendment's noninfringable right for individuals to keep and bear arms for self defense and as part of the many disincentives towards tyranny built into the Constitution...not so much.
Be that as it may, I still call this a good move by the ACLU and hope they prevail. I will cheer them when they are right and chide them when they are wrong the same as anyone else regardless of party or ideology.
People need to stop thinking in terms of groups and group rights and concentrate on what is right for individuals. That's the real problem. TPTB have spent the last 60 years dividing people into subgroups and ethnicities and pitting them against each other to create the emotional tension to create partisan followers fueled by hate and resentment for their fellow Americans.
Let's just worry about what is *good*. Those basic principles that built the US and made it the most prolifically-generous and charitable nation to have ever existed. Just look out for your neighbor. Lend a hand if you can. Don't let them play Emperor Palpatine; "Yes!...Let the hate flow through you!"
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." - President Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
Don't let the hate-merchants who want to divide us all up, stir up hatred, and pit us against each other like Roman Coliseum gladiator-slaves, win.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Why should the ACLU waste their resources on the 2nd amendment. There are plenty of other organizations.
Cheap storage VM.