 Tommy from one system we're going to talk about the most secure app for end-to-end encrypted Privacy-oriented communication and that signal it has added a lot of features since I last reviewed it So I figured one it needs an update to a lot of people are looking for a good privacy app with all the confusion out there about some Of the other companies whether or not they are actually doing encryption How they're actually handling your data or sometimes mishandling that data So we're gonna dive into the signal app and why it's my favorite app for secure communications Before we dive into that. Let's first feel like to learn more about me and my company head over to Lawrence systems calm If you like to hire short project There's a hires button right at the top if you like to help keep this channel sponsor-free and thank you to everyone who Already has there is a join button here for YouTube and a patreon page your support is greatly appreciated If you're looking for deals or discounts on products and services we offer on this channel check out the affiliate links down below They're in the description of all of our videos Including a link to our shirts or we have a wide variety of shirts that we sell and new designs come out Well randomly so check back frequently and finally our forums forums Dot Lawrence systems comm is where you can have a more in-depth discussion about this video and other tech topics You've seen on this channel now back to our content a couple things I want to get right out of the way when it comes to signal one a lot of people have issued the fact that it uses The phone number for identity, but don't worry. There's an easy workaround find any voice service And I've reviewed VoIP MS which does support tech services where you can buy a phone number And you can use signal on a brand new phone number you buy from somewhere like VoIP MS for a few dollars a month So that way you can use signal on a device without having it tied to your personal phone number But I like it tied to my personal phone number for talking to all of my friends and you know Makes it an easy way to do it We've actually tied our business number to signal as well, but we're not actively using it did it for mostly Demonstration and testing purposes But that sometimes is a problem people have with signal is the fact that it does tie to a phone number Like I said, there's workarounds for that next I will address the other issues and one of those bigger ones is well There's other companies that are open source time There's other platforms in etc etc that are also open source that are also even some of them use because the signal Algorithm and all the technology behind it is open source and other companies do integrate it into their platforms Signal has a couple distinct differences from those other companies. One of them is it's not a company. It's an organization This is a very important distinction when you're looking for a Application because what's their business model? How are they going to leverage privacy or not? And that sometimes comes in the case of their business model is harvesting some type of data about you charging you for the app or Selling off the company because they have a business that's set up to run for free to build up users And once they run on a venture capital money, they're hoping to sell to someone else none of those issues affects signal and Because they set up as an organization not just a group of people working on an open source project, which of course is another distinction this means the organization can continue and Keep allowing a free application plus the bylaws of the organization Well, it doesn't have a methodology by which you can sell its users data. They also chose not to have users data signal has been really Vetted by some really familiar names and security such as Bruce Schneier Jack Dorsey's use signal Edward Snowden Moxie Marlin spikes the original author of the signal protocol and everything else very privacy oriented now Let's get over to features. This is where things get really cool share without insecurity state of the art and Encryption this is an important thing that they have this because a lot of companies claim and encryption But when you dig into it, they're the key holder like oh we use end encryption But we also hold a copy of the keys So this is where it becomes a buzzword versus a practical security measure They don't hold the keys the encryption starts on the device From where you are initiating the phone call the text message or multimedia message Whatever you're sending or video call like I did at the beginning of the video and it ends encrypted on wherever it lands The other place at no point in between the signal hold your keys So while their companies claim and encryption, they are also wanting to do the key management and key management means they have The potential for subpoena or anyone else to tap into that either an inside threat actor who may want to You know go in and tie into your privacy see something on the inside well signal avoids all those issues How do you know they avoid the issues? Well, they have several responses about how they've dealt with grand jury subpoenas Basically giving all they have and when you see all they have they really don't have much so there's a couple different Blog post they have about this and of course they link to exactly what they submitted a matter of fact they had to actually file and a petition removed gag order in order to allow to say what they did share with The government because people say you shared with the government like yeah, we did but we don't have anything So then they had to file a petition and they're very transparent about this whole process now being that they're an organization They do have that little donate button at the top you can donate to signal that's part of their business They're also well funded by some of the security researchers for mention that have dumped a lot of money into it and organizations that care about privacy So it's a business model indeed, but it's not like it's running on a shoestring budget here They're actually a well-funded organization with a lot of privacy in there. Let's get to features though say anything speak freely They get all the cool things that you want out of a messaging app Make privacy stick a new layer of expression your conversations encrypted stickers It's kind of fun like the standard things you may want out of a messaging app because it doesn't have to be just You know some type of basic boring text, but all well encrypted No, let's put some stickers and have some fun. But also why not encrypt all of that get together with groups This is another feature they've added. It's really great now One of my challenges I've always had is I didn't like when you have people on android platform or the apple platform And their messaging app and getting groups together. Yeah, there was always some challenges if I didn't see the message It doesn't show this attach signal because it's completely cross platform works on android works on apple works on linux Works on mac works on windows So my group conversation that I started on any one device I can move to another device and Carry over that group conversation with me and join in those conversations and it doesn't matter And like I said, I have a lot of friends using this That work in security and I've even got a lot of my family using this So this is my preferred methodology for communicating and it's actually been really convenient Like I said, it's free for everyone. So there's not a great feature Now the desktop support is very recent for the video phone calls But I've been really impressed with just how well it works and how solid of a process that is like it's really easy You get the signal app for whatever you're using mac windows or linux And you can now have a conversation with another person using signal and using the phone number as the identifier While some people may have a problem with it Like I said at the beginning it also makes it really easy to figure it out using signal And as soon as you load the app on your phone and allow it to start looking through your contacts They only exchange metadata. They have entire write up on how this process happens You can start identifying other users that have signal And this makes it a little bit easier to find people and of course if you're dealing with your personal inner circle Most of them have your phone number as well. This is really replaced any type of other messaging for me In terms of secure messaging with family and friends, of course I have to use all the other ones just to communicate with the world as a greater whole But overall, I'm really happy with signal. I'm really happy with the transparency They've offered over the years that I have been using them and I've really seen 2020 as a big turning point where some of these other applications And yes, I was a huge fan of keybase Which unfortunately got sold and the development kind of halted on that And I was really hoping for them to come up with something Because they were so full featured and offered it more than signal But then keybase got bought by zoom and that just didn't go well So I kind of quit using that application, which is unfortunate But with them updating the groups inside of signal, that's another thing that has been really good because well now I got my groups back I just don't have uh everyone that I had over on keybase. Sorry for those of you that are asking me about that still Back to signal. Last thing I'll mention is I love the fact that you can set ephemeral messaging on there Because most of the messages I have most of them are really mundane But that does not mean I need a complete long archive of them and signal makes it really easy to set Expiring messages you can say only hold messages in this group chat for 24 hours two hours, whatever that may be So if you do have to send something very private or secure Maybe some type of password or some piece of information Like, you know, I've recently bought a house and I had to exchange information my wife And I don't want to just send personal documents that I needed to do the home purchase I have no trouble at all one sending them through signal means I was able to quickly get her some piece of information Privately securely no worries about people seeing it and it had an expiration time on it I set it to an hour. She only needed it of that moment so within an hour It just disappears off the phone and now it's gone without a trace in case I ever You know forget the phone somewhere or someone unlocks it Having that long history signal makes it a lot easier to do So I'm giving a huge thumbs up the cross platform nature of it If you're looking for an app and you have friends on both platforms You can talk more of them into using it It's an easy sell because it can in some circumstances replace your sms app But it's so easy to use and because it already has a phone number You can slowly inch your family over there and have private conversations And now that they've added this video conferencing on there for people truly looking for an encryption on that It's solid. I've been using it quite a bit Matter of fact the voice quality if you just use it not as a video But is it just a voice call because hit that as a voice call works Really really well because it uses a nice hd voice quality And I've been really happy with that a matter of fact to make more and more phone calls That's frequently how I talk to my wife and many of my family and my security friends We just you know hit that call button on signal and they can answer from their desktop or their phone Whatever's within reach of them, but uh leave a link to signal at our there's no other Thing I have there's no offer because it's free and it's just something I really endorse And by the way if you're really curious to dive into the encryption deeper That's all documented as well with all their source code and they have the entire Methodologies by which to encrypt things so if you're really into that Trust me they've got it all documented and it's kind of a fun read if you're into cryptography And it has been vetted as I said by people like Bruce Schneier who also is really into cryptography and took the time to actually Audit and vet the code. 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