Conversation

Notices

1. Meredith Whittaker (mer__edith@mastodon.world)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:25:42 JST Meredith Whittaker

   PSA: We've received questions about push notifications. First: push notifications for Signal NEVER contain sensitive unencrypted data & do not reveal the contents of any Signal messages or calls–not to Apple, not to Google, not to anyone but you & the people you're talking to. 1/

   • ck@chaos.social's status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:30:42 JST ck

     in reply to

     • Signal
     • Rich Felker

     @dalias
     The vexing part is that @signalapp (seemingly categorically ) refuses to cooperate with the rest of the FOSS world to integrate with open solutions, which already exist. Instead, their spokespeople like
     @Mer__edith prefer to talk down to people who, for whichever reason can't or don't want to run proprietary Google services on their Android phone.

   • ck@chaos.social's status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:30:43 JST ck

     in reply to

     • Rich Felker

     @dalias
     There are a couple of options for notifications.
     The most battery saving design is to have your app being woken up whenever a notification is received. This way, you app does not use battery while there is nothing for it to do. The dominant solution in this space is integrated into Google Play (proprietary). The opposite site of the spectrum, and the solution Signal chose, is for the app to require permission to stay awake all the time polling for notifications.
     @Mer__edith

   • Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:30:44 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     @Mer__edith How does it end up being battery-destroying? Shouldn't it just be waiting on a socket that has no data until there's a notification to be processed, with the TCP keepalive set on the socket options so kernel rather than userspace deals with stupid NATs that would otherwise drop it?

   • Meredith Whittaker (mer__edith@mastodon.world)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:30:46 JST Meredith Whittaker

     in reply to

     *(Note, if you are among the small number of people that run alt Android-based operating systems that don't include Google libraries, we implement the battery-destroying push option, and hope you have ways to navigate.) 6/

   • Meredith Whittaker (mer__edith@mastodon.world)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:30:47 JST Meredith Whittaker

     in reply to

     So, while we do not love Big Tech choke points and the control that a handful of companies wield over the tech ecosystem, we do everything we can to ensure that in spite of this dynamic, if you use Signal your privacy is preserved. 5/

   • Meredith Whittaker (mer__edith@mastodon.world)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:30:48 JST Meredith Whittaker

     in reply to

     Apple simply doesn’t let you do it another way. And Google, well you could (and we've tried), but the cost to battery life is devastating for performance, rendering this a false option if you want to build a usable, practical, dependable app for people all over the world.* 4/

   • Meredith Whittaker (mer__edith@mastodon.world)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:30:49 JST Meredith Whittaker

     in reply to

     What's the background here? Currently, in order to enable push notifications on the dominant mobile operating systems (iOS and Android) those building and maintaining apps like Signal need to use services offered by Apple and Google. 3/

   • Meredith Whittaker (mer__edith@mastodon.world)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:30:50 JST Meredith Whittaker

     in reply to

     In Signal, push notifications simply act as a ping that tells the app to wake up. They don't reveal who sent the message or who is calling (not to Apple, Google, or anyone). Notifications are processed entirely on your device. This is different from many other apps. 2/

   • Meredith Whittaker (mer__edith@mastodon.world)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:31:12 JST Meredith Whittaker

     in reply to

     • ck
     • Signal
     • Rich Felker

     @ck @dalias @signalapp this is a very rude comment that misunderstands our choices and commitments. I, also, do not *want* to run corp software. But in a world where a few companies own and/or otherwise control most of the infra we all rely on, INCLUDING choosing which FOSS options receive support (via hiring their maintainers, funding via Linux Found etc), it's an unhelpful fantasy to paint operating in this ecosystem, shaped by these forces/actors, as a "choice" made out of obstinacy/stupidity