this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
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Privacy
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I totally agree with you. But!
Signal doesn't have their own servers. Instead, they rent servers from 4 companies, 3 of them is Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. So Signal is relying on Big Tech and if Big Tech decides that enough is enough, they can easily shut Signal down.
THAT is what I find most terrifying. And why not use their own server? Not enough money, but they are working on it (good).
And to make it a little bit worst: Signal depends on a third party company for sending out SMS. Your phone number is therefore handled by not Signal, but by yet another company, highly likey an American company. And they are against privacy invading companies at the same time they are one. Oh, the irony.
You want sources? Sure.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the idea of Signal. But there is flaws that makes Signal more privacy invading than privacy friendly.
That's the part that makes me nervous. If I get a bunch of people locked on Signal, then they take away services or change how they run the servers, then it would be a hassle to move people to a completely new interface.
Yeah. Let say Signal goes down because of Big Tech and lets say that 50% of their users use Signal as their only messaging app. What will happen then? Hysteria!
No, XMPP all the way for me until Signal becomes decentralized with zero external connections and when they also have removed the phone number requirement.
If the worst part about Signal is having a third party send you an SMS to confirm your phone number then that's amazing.