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Elon Musk Urges Followers to Drop Facebook for Signal (digitaltrends.com) 98

What's the world's richest man up to? Digital Trends reports: Tech CEO Elon Musk has urged his almost 42 million Twitter followers to use secure messaging app Signal instead of Facebook products. In a series of tweets, Musk shared a meme referencing Facebook's role in the spread of misinformation leading to the attack on Congress this week and suggested people should use the Signal app.

The tweets seem to have been prompted by a recent change to Facebook's privacy policy. As reported by The Hacker News, the new updates allow more sharing of data between Facebook and its partner company WhatsApp, including the sharing of phone numbers, interactions on the platform, information about mobile devices used to access the service, and IP addresses. If WhatsApp users do not agree to the data sharing, their accounts are disabled.

Musk has been vocally critical of Facebook in the past, saying that he chose to delete Facebook accounts for SpaceX and Tesla in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018. He has also had spats with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally, the two of them having sniped at each other over Twitter and other social media platforms several times in the past.

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Elon Musk Urges Followers to Drop Facebook for Signal

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  • Good (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DivineKnight ( 3763507 ) on Saturday January 09, 2021 @05:39PM (#60917608)

    Signal is a better program than What's App, security wise.

    • WhatsApp is a better program than Signal on account of everyone in my country using it. Very few people care about security. They care about network effects.

      • Your requirements and priorities meet your short-term needs, but security and privacy is a long-term problem with many facets and demands many compromises. I recommend an approach that covers multiple networks simultaneously until you can deprecate the obsolete one. (tl;dr - why not both)

        • No my requirements meet a fundamental need. The world's most secure and private communications program is utterly useless if there's no one to communicate with it.

          The problem with your proposal is that fundamentally the world has voted with their wallets and they have sent a clear message: They don't care. If signal = WhatsApp + extra privacy you won't get people to switch, you'll never obsolete the former if people don't have some deep desire to switch to the latter. Never underestimate just what WhatsApp

    • Not good. Lack of common sense and fair moderation and transparency are what's causing so much trouble. With Signal, we'll jump from the frying pan into the fire.
  • If you value privacy don't do anything online.

  • by cristiroma ( 606375 ) on Saturday January 09, 2021 @05:51PM (#60917662)

    Should have done this a long time ago. Unfortunately my children's discussion groups are managed via WhatsApp ... The only option is now to spread the word about Signal.

  • Are there others even better still?

  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday January 09, 2021 @05:56PM (#60917678)

    is two ultrarich guys having a feud, and asking millions of shmucks to take side, as if it mattered to them - and sadly, millions of shmucks probably do.

  • ...paedophile in 10... 9... 8... 7... 6...
  • Signal not anonymous (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rtkluttz ( 244325 ) on Saturday January 09, 2021 @06:09PM (#60917722) Homepage

    Signal is still aggravating because it is impossible to have anonymous accounts. I want to be able to message someone without it being tied to anything traceable to my real person.. like my damn phone number. I don't want a relationship with signal or whisper inc. or anyone. I want both security AND anonymity if I choose to be anonymous to someone. If it can't be anonymous, then it is not TRULY private.

    • That’s not what Signal is about. However you could always fork the code.

    • by jiriw ( 444695 ) on Saturday January 09, 2021 @06:34PM (#60917804) Homepage

      That stance is plain greed, just there. Maybe even insidious. I can accept you want anonymity vs. the 'system'/all third parties and even consider it a right. But anonymity vs. your communications partner is a damn degraded form of communication and is why spam, advertising and unsolicited mail 'works'. Plus it promotes all kinds of nastyness, like identity theft. At least consider a certification system for mutual trust between the communication partners (like SSL/HTTPS for web traffic). So, no anonymous accounts in my book. I want to know who I'm dealing with! Come back when I can.

      • The war on anonymous communication is definitely on. The online world is quickly moving towards a "papers please" system at every corner. Good work, comrade.

      • You have no clue what you are saying. Anonymity can still absolutely define 2 people uniquely but just not tie them to a real identity. Think whistleblower talking to a reporter. They can exchange keys out of channel and CONFIRM they are the same unique people without giving up real identities. This is absolutely critical in a society and it is being taken away from us online.

    • I suggest you use write your messages on piece of paper, put it inside an envelop, write the name of the person you want to communicate with and mail it. Anonymity guaranteed.

      If you want to send me a message, but there is no one to tell it is from a real person not a spam bot, you dont get to send me a message. Or attach a small sum of cash, may be 10 cents for each message.

    • Yes, he know it is a problem.
      He's working on it, and is almost done.
      That's why you now have to enter a passphrase to restore your user account.

      So hold out a bit, look up the bug in their bug tracker, and contribute. Code aswell as donations help it get done quicker.

      Remember: Signal's limiting factor is the availability of high quality coding work. Moxie still has to assess where to spend his limited time. If they could hire more people, we'd have this done a long time ago.

      • How about you look, all those old embarrassing feature requests were closed with a message to take it to the community forums where they are more easily ignored.

    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday January 09, 2021 @08:08PM (#60918138)

      Signal is still aggravating because it is impossible to have anonymous accounts. I want to be able to message someone without it being tied to anything traceable to my real person.. like my damn phone number. I don't want a relationship with signal or whisper inc. or anyone. I want both security AND anonymity if I choose to be anonymous to someone. If it can't be anonymous, then it is not TRULY private.

      Sounds great in theory. But for the most part people genuinely frown on a direct messaging app having anonymous functions. Spam is enough of a problem. On the odd occasion where someone has a legitimate need for what you propose, use a burner phone, or email from anonymous accounts, or send a USB stick in an envelope.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • They have always wanted to be the next WhatsApp and sell out for billions, for that they need their user's telephone numbers to form a social network interesting to advertisers.

      Everything else is just excuses.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Get yourself a burner SIM. Pay-as-you-go. They are often free or very nearly so.

      I did this a while back and used one to set up a few accounts that require a phone number, and then destroyed it. Obviously can't recover accounts via SMS any more but I'll just make new ones.

    • The only app that associates open source, end2end encryption AND full anonymity is Jami.
      Jami doesn't need your phone nor impose a relation to it (you can create an instance on your computer), and doesn't use a central server for associations.

      So,
      - with Signal nobody can know what you tell me, but it's still rather easy to detect you called me
      - with Jami, nobody can tell who you are talking to (and of course nobody can decrypt the message too).

      If you want anonymity in addition to Signal features, Jami is for

    • by Joviex ( 976416 )

      Signal is still aggravating because it is impossible to have anonymous accounts. I want to be able to message someone without it being tied to anything traceable to my real person.. like my damn phone number. I don't want a relationship with signal or whisper inc. or anyone. I want both security AND anonymity if I choose to be anonymous to someone. If it can't be anonymous, then it is not TRULY private.

      Except? Your "phone number" isnt private. Anyone can pretty much reverse lookup people based on it, and you are a registered and paying customer of that "number" -- leasing it if you will. So, the phone company knows exactly who the hell you are.

  • And how much data are Tesla cars hoovering up and sending to Elon?

    • And how much data are Tesla cars hoovering up and sending to Elon?

      There is nothing wrong with hoovering data as long as it is informed and consensual.

  • = stuff I don't like
  • by Randseed ( 132501 ) on Saturday January 09, 2021 @06:36PM (#60917808)
    Finally Musk does something that earns him some respect. I'd personally love to see a Musk vs. Zuck throwdown. Maybe put them in the Octagon. Zuck is so going down and is overplayed his card. What an idiot.
  • While I am all for severing ties with data-hungry Facebook, how does Signal prevent spreading fake news?
    • Lol.

      (Hint: Signal's makera can by definition not ever see what you are writing. Go chexk and complie the code yourself.)

    • You're gonna have to do your damn job, and make sure everyone gets a high quality education and no wealth is stolen from the people, so they don't have to fall for bullshit in the first place, dear citizen.

      • Right, but to fix the global fake news problem, I need to also address the legitimate points you raised in countries where I am not a citizen.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      > how does Signal prevent spreading fake news?

      But, but, but we can't communicate without censorship. What if someone wrongthinks or my feefee's get hurt.
      Once you pass your physical prime and/or have no relevant skills you'll be recycled so you don't have to be a burden on society.

  • If we dont pay dollars, the advertisers will pay for it. Then the customer for the service provider is the advertiser and the users become products.

    If Elon Musk, sets up a large trust to fund service providers like news, messaging, social networking, so that they can work for users, not advertisers it will go a long way. Wish he will actually pony up some cash, like a few million dollars for immediate upgrade of infrastructure to handle the growth he is sending its way.

  • by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Saturday January 09, 2021 @07:42PM (#60918060)

    ... is my enemy I hate less.

    Hello, Elon Musk! :)

  • I would think social media has caused more problems, violence, death, mayhem... all sorts of wrong in its short history than the total for a few centuries of earlier life.

  • Over here, i switched nearly all my personal communications to Signal, many of my colleagues and friends adopted it as well.
    But I can’t delete whatsapp just yet. Many local services support it like fornexample doctor’s appointments and the like.
  • That is what prevents me to sign up and use it.

  • Kinda, I'd have rather himsay to ditch all social media for the proper IRC, Allo Efnet Eris Free
  • I recognize that Signal has more secure communications, but as a platform for receiving information it sucks. If misinformation can spread on Facebook even with monitoring / reporting mechanisms then it is going to be even worse on Signal that has nothing.
  • In a by now expected bit of confusion [a previous instance was Zoom] both Signal and Signal Advance saw their stock getting a boost!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Signal does not appear to be a social media platform, simply a messaging app, I had no real opinion on Musk before this, but he appears to be not very good techwise if he doesn't know the difference.

  • The guy who mischaracterized our current pandemic ain't one to be talking about social media disinformation. Fuck him.

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