- cross-posted to:
- privacyguides@lemmy.one
- cross-posted to:
- privacyguides@lemmy.one
Signal has announced new functionality in its upcoming beta releases, allowing users to transfer messages and media when linking their primary Signal device to a new desktop or iPad. This feature offers the choice to carry over chats and the last 45 days of media, or to start fresh with only new messages.
The transfer process is end-to-end encrypted, ensuring privacy. It involves creating a compressed, encrypted archive of your Signal data, which is then sent to the new device via Signal’s servers. Despite handling the transfer, the servers cannot access the message content due to the encryption.
With the introduction of a cross-platform archive format, Signal is also exploring additional tools for message transfer to new devices or restoration in case of device loss or damage. Users can begin testing this feature soon, with a wider rollout expected in the coming weeks.
I see. I just don’t have adversaries, and if they got hold of the memes and inane conversations I have about whose turn it is to pick up the kid from school then good luck to them.
Ehhh, that’s an easy thought.
But what about when your memes point to you being in a group that is now illegal, or oppressed? What if something you said a year ago is now being looked for as a sign of possible opposition?
It’s nice to think “I have nothing to hide”, and for the most part, most people don’t.
But that conversation about who’s picking the kids up from school is enough to help pin down where you’ll be at a given time, when you’ll be apart from your family, it gives an insight into family dynamics, it gives hints as to your personality, and your partner’s.
You stack that with exchanges about groceries, errands, etc, and now anyone who can get access to your measures messages can predict a lot more about you
Since fascism in particular is coming back with a vengeance, your can’t even predict what you’ll be targeted for.
Now, take all of that info, combine it with location data that’s even easier for a government to get, and you’re fucked.
Don’t forget that a woman was arrested because she helped her daughter obtain abortion pills. They got the info via Facebook, but with the messages being gone would have prevented that, or made it much harder.
This is the world we live in now. None of us are safe, none of us can rely on the rule of law. It’s rolling the dice as to what can be used against you.
If you don’t have adversaries then why not use SMS? Though this just ends up with the tired old “if you have nothing to hide” argument that I’m not really interested in repeating.
Those examples also don’t sound like things you’ll need to look up months or years down the line, either. So why not just let them fade away?
The “nothing to hide” thing is a bad argument, IMO. I’ve got nothing to hide, but I lock the bathroom door when I go in there.
Sometimes it’s been useful to go back through a chat history and find something someone said in the past. A group I’m in regularly rings up old references from a year before. I like it.
I’m a bit of a digital hoarder though. I keep blurry photos from years ago, no clue why.
I got a few people to switch from SMS to Signal because they’re on iPhones, I’m on Android, and they love sending me videos that end up totally unwatchable via MMS.
Same topics here, which is exactly why I have no use for archiving chats.