this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
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I'm not nearly as salty about SMS because of the following differences from the WhatsApp scenario. Signal-SMS was only supported on Android, call it half of Signal users whereas a potential WhatsApp integration (or lack thereof) would affect nearly all Signal users. Then the Android users who have to reach others over SMS already have a built-in system app that does this, so they don't have to install third party app that exists to vacuum data. So the downgrade for the Android Signal user is in ease of use, not in overall security.
Except most people are not going to tolerate having a multiplicity of apps, and if people in your circle don't already use signal, they definitely won't now. Whereas previously, I was getting pretty decent traction from people slowly adding it.
In the modern age, it's getting easier to hard-line your messaging platform though.
If people are already used to having multiple messaging clients for multiple people, it's less of a jump to add one more.
This has been my experience as well. In the past friends and family were more reluctant to break away from whatever their default communication app was. These days most people are already familiar with the idea of using one thing to text, another to "message", and often more than that. I've had great success converting people to more secure platforms now that they understand the process.
Don’t the built in system apps also vacuum data?
This is Lemmy. Here we believe everything vacuums data!
The built-in apps get and send SMS from a system service on Android. In nearly every case the system app is from the same vendor as the system itself which means there's no significant opportunity for data disclosure that doesn't already exist within the system. If anything , the system has much larger opportunity to vacuum data. Therefore if you don't trust the system SMS app, you shouldn't trust the system either. If you trust the system, you can probably trust the system SMS app too. Third party SMS apps present net additional opportunity for data disclosure so one has to trust the one they use doesn't vacuum data.