Moxie Marlinspke & Signal & privacy

webecedarian · 19 Dec 2020, 08:43 AM

It doesn't look as though there's been a thread specifically about Signal, so here you go, if you're a reader.

Taking Back Our Privacy
Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of the end-to-end encrypted messaging service Signal, is “trying to bring normality to the Internet.”

By Anna Wiener

Marlinspike is the C.E.O. of Signal, the end-to-end encrypted messaging service, which he launched in 2014; he is also a cryptographer, a hacker, a shipwright, and a licensed mariner...

Since Signal was released, it has evolved from a niche tool, touted by the privacy-minded and the paranoid, into a mainstream product recommended by the Wall Street Journal... Signal, as a nonprofit, is an outlier in the tech industry. It runs entirely on donations. “Signal’s mission has always been to make end-to-end encryption as ubiquitous as possible, rather than a commercial success,” Marlinspike said.

Enforcing laws, Marlinspike believes, should be difficult. He likes to say that “we should all have something to hide,” a statement that he intends not as a blanket endorsement of criminal activity but as an acknowledgment that the legal system can be manipulated, and that even the most banal activities or text messages can be incriminating. In his view, frequent lawbreaking points to systemic rot. He often cites the legalization of same-sex marriage and, in some states, marijuana as evidence that people sometimes need to challenge laws or engage in nominally criminal activity for years before progress can be made. “Before, it was inconceivable,” he said. “After, it was inconceivable that it was ever inconceivable.” Privacy, he says, is a necessary condition for experimentation, and for social change...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...ck-our-privacy

19 Dec 2020, 08:43 AM	#1
webecedarian Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 483	Moxie Marlinspke & Signal & privacy It doesn't look as though there's been a thread specifically about Signal, so here you go, if you're a reader. Taking Back Our Privacy Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of the end-to-end encrypted messaging service Signal, is “trying to bring normality to the Internet.” By Anna Wiener Marlinspike is the C.E.O. of Signal, the end-to-end encrypted messaging service, which he launched in 2014; he is also a cryptographer, a hacker, a shipwright, and a licensed mariner... Since Signal was released, it has evolved from a niche tool, touted by the privacy-minded and the paranoid, into a mainstream product recommended by the Wall Street Journal... Signal, as a nonprofit, is an outlier in the tech industry. It runs entirely on donations. “Signal’s mission has always been to make end-to-end encryption as ubiquitous as possible, rather than a commercial success,” Marlinspike said. Enforcing laws, Marlinspike believes, should be difficult. He likes to say that “we should all have something to hide,” a statement that he intends not as a blanket endorsement of criminal activity but as an acknowledgment that the legal system can be manipulated, and that even the most banal activities or text messages can be incriminating. In his view, frequent lawbreaking points to systemic rot. He often cites the legalization of same-sex marriage and, in some states, marijuana as evidence that people sometimes need to challenge laws or engage in nominally criminal activity for years before progress can be made. “Before, it was inconceivable,” he said. “After, it was inconceivable that it was ever inconceivable.” Privacy, he says, is a necessary condition for experimentation, and for social change... https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...ck-our-privacy