@todd-weaver has written a new blog article for Purism.
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It seems these arguments also apply to Signal, which is centralized and actively fighting with attempts to run alternative servers and clients. This by the way is the reason I avoid it.
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At least the level of user privacy is better than the others:
(They say.)
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I’m not sure about it, given the recent discovery of spying via push notifications and that Signal (almost) forces you to use them (one could use Signal without it, but it requires tinkering AFAIK).
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I also don’t want to use Signal, but I read that they don’t save a lot of data, so they were not be able to give data to Governments.
Btw, the Purism forums are also centralized. 
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Yes. I installed it via .apk on my degoogled Android… but of course if I message with someone who’s not using a degoogled Android, their push notifications are susceptible. Fortunately (?), only one person from my contacts list has Signal installed… and we never use it to talk. 
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But you can use them anonymously. 
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The thing that really annoys me about Signal is that their desktop application can’t function without a phone account.
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And Librem 5 is considered “desktop” here…
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I also can create a Facebook account via TOR.
At the end, both is pseudonym. With enough data the real person behind can be found. If I speak about my L5 delivery date, Purism is close to get my real identity if they connect data together.
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Which is why I didn’t tell my delivery date 
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Which is your freedom while mine was to do it (and I knew what this means to my pseudonym). 
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Coming back to the OP … even if a company doesn’t currently have the resources or expertise to self-host they should still have their own domain … so that they can in the future be the master of their own domain.
It is also important to keep in mind that insecure self-hosting offers none of: security, privacy, control. If you are holding information about other people (customer information) then this is doubly important. So the decision that a business makes should be a careful one. My anecdotal observation is that current trends, both practical and regulatory, are pushing companies away from self-hosting.
Even though most of the blog article is about businesses, it starts off talking about the individual. For the individual, the decision not to use Big Tech is a no-brainer if you want privacy, if you want control of your digital life. Unfortunately I meet many people for whom “Facebook” and “the web” are considered synonymous.
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Short discussion on Hacker News: Centralized or Decentralized There Is No Question | Hacker News.
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Curious. Is it that “can’t function without a phone account”, mean Signal “can’t” or won’t?
~s
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Good question! 
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Am I right to assume that like Google, their phone number must be for a digital device - landlines verboten.
I know they serve digital phones, but for those that prefer, like me, not to use digital phones @ home.
~s
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I would not know, as I do not use Signal or a landline phone.
Just found this guide from The Intercept (Glenn Greenwald, et al), outlining several Signal anonymity workarounds… and their limitations: Talk To Strangers on Signal With a Public Phone Number
It’s quite long and involved - like all The Intercept articles - but you can skim over the sections that you’re not interested in.
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