[HN Gopher] What Is the Signal Encryption Protocol?
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       What Is the Signal Encryption Protocol?
        
       Author : headalgorithm
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2020-11-29 13:01 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.wired.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.com)
        
       | upofadown wrote:
       | This article mentions an important fact about forward secrecy:
       | 
       | >Perfect forward secrecy is useless, it's important to note, if
       | users don't delete their messages periodically.
       | 
       | Then:
       | 
       | >The Signal app offers disappearing messages that are
       | automatically deleted after a certain time limit.
       | 
       | Which is not turned on by default. The user has to somehow know
       | that they have to do this to get the benefit of forward secrecy.
       | This seems all too common with contemporary encrypted messaging
       | stuff. Really great features that depend on having the users
       | behave in a way they normally would not.
       | 
       | Of course the app can do this wrong simply by failing to do a
       | secure delete that actually removes the messages from the storage
       | device. In the end the actual communications protocol doesn't
       | make very much difference in the face of counter productive
       | implementations; conceptual and/or technical.
        
         | xiaomai wrote:
         | I think not having it disappear by default is reasonable. My
         | biggest complaint about signal is how hard it is to preserve
         | history (backing up / transferring to new devices). I think the
         | normal expectation is that your data is not going to
         | automatically disappear unless you ask it to.
        
           | asquabventured wrote:
           | When was the last time you moved devices? I was able to
           | wirelessly import my entire years old messaging and contact
           | database when I switched iOS devices ~10 months ago. I don't
           | recall if it used NFC, Bluetooth or having to be connected to
           | the same WiFi network but it worked impressively well at the
           | time.
        
             | xiaomai wrote:
             | one thing i have done recently that definitely didn't work
             | is syncing history from phone->desktop. i haven't gone
             | phone->phone in at least a couple years though--good to
             | hear that that's working better.
        
               | bilal4hmed wrote:
               | They recently improved it on iOS
               | https://signal.org/blog/ios-device-transfer/
               | 
               | on Android you have to do it manually and its by no means
               | easy or intuitive if you are an everyday user. Whatsapp
               | nails this experience on Android with the back up and
               | transfer capability
        
             | jaywalk wrote:
             | The iOS transfer process uses the same technology as
             | AirDrop, what Apple calls Multipeer Connectivity: https://d
             | eveloper.apple.com/documentation/multipeerconnectiv...
             | 
             | The phones create their own ad-hoc Wi-Fi network, similar
             | to Wi-Fi Direct.
        
           | neckardt wrote:
           | I have the opposite problem where I can't turn disappearing
           | messages on by default. Every time I create a new
           | conversation I have to manually set messages to disappear
           | after a week which I often forget to do.
        
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       (page generated 2020-11-30 23:00 UTC)