Tag: SMS

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Signal: The Privacy-First Messenger Changing the Game

Messaging apps have revolutionized communication, reshaping our daily lives and relationships. It’s hard to imagine a time without SMS paving the way for near-instant connectivity. Could we even fathom returning to a world where real-time communication wasn’t at our fingertips?

Today, we have a plethora of messaging options. Platforms like Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, and Facebook Messenger offer diverse features to suit our preferences. Many apps boast encryption, making users assume their conversations are private and secure.

But how safe are they? Cloud-hosted applications often collect metadata from our interactions. This data—information about who, when, where, and how we communicate—is a goldmine for advertising algorithms. It helps these companies refine their ad targeting, shaping the products and services in our feeds. While these apps may make life more convenient, it’s worth asking: Are they truly looking out for your privacy—or their profit margins?

Signal is advanced end-to-end encryption built on the open-source Signal Protocol. It ensures our conversations remain entirely secure. No one can access your messages or calls. Privacy isn’t an add-on feature—it’s the foundation of Signal’s operation.

I started using Signal a half-dozen years ago when a friend suggested it. I had been looking for a secure messaging system while working on a private estate matter. Signal worked well as I messaged my partner with confidential financial information. It allowed us to send and receive confidential data that was fully encrypted across international boundaries and worldwide.

Signal’s core features are encrypted messaging, voice/video calls, disappearing messages, and group chats. It distinguishes itself from other messaging apps with its commitment to user privacy. There are no ads, no trackers, and minimal data collection. In a world where digital privacy has become paramount for journalists, activists, and anyone who values confidentiality, Signal shines.

Signal’s encryption is powered by the Signal Protocol, a robust cryptographic framework designed to ensure end-to-end security for messages and calls. Signal mobile clients, desktop clients, and server software are free and distributed with an AGPL v. 3 license. Signal is available on Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, and Linux.

You can easily download and install Signal on your desktop or mobile client. Signal currently has approximately seventy million active users, and the app has been downloaded over two hundred twenty million times. Signal is owned and operated by the Signal Foundation, a non-profit organization co-founded in 2018 by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton.

Signal provides excellent documentation to help users get started using the application. The Signal Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. You can support Signal and the important work it does. Developers are welcome.

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New direction

I recently wrote about fear and doubt and how I was uncertain of my future and how that future might include retirement. I walked all the way to the edge and even jumped off into retirement only to be recalled by one of my supervisors. A week ago I was summoned to the principal’s office for what I thought would be a scolding and lo and behold the man wanted me to return to the classroom. I’m being re-invented and in September I’ll be teaching seventh and eighth grade students how to stay safe on the internet, use tools like Google Docs and use their cell phones as learning tools.

The request and the experience has left me with a beginners mind. I’m reaching out to other teachers who’ve taught at this grade level before and who have had this assignment. For the last several years I’ve been a proponent of the educational uses of cell phones. I’ve been at loggerheads with the administration on this point. I’ve come to believe that cell phones are really the present and future direction of computing. For years we’ve been talking about one to one computing and only an elite few districts could actually pull it off. Most lacked the resources. Adding to the proliferation of cell phones is the emergence of the Net Book platform. The near and far term will see a melding of the two and in a relatively short period of time I think we’ll see an almost total disappearance of the traditional desktop and even laptop computers in favor of net centric devices that connect to both traditional 802.11 wireless networks and cellular networks. Recent events in Iran prove the effectiveness of low bandwidth tools like Twitter and SMS to get the message out.

Of course these tools can be dangerous in the hands of young people who frequently lack good judgement and use them to send inappropriate messages which put them and their futures in jeopardy. My assignment includes helping to change those behaviors. It’s a tall order but it’s one that’s got me excited and energized. I hope that you will continue to pray as I need those prayers and so do the students I’ll be working with.