DeGoogle Yourself

16980 readers

384 users here now

A community for those that would like to get away from Google.

Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!

Rules

Be respectful even in disagreement
No advertising unless it is very relevent and justified. Do not do this excessively.
No low value posts / memes. We or you need to learn, or discuss something.

Related communities

!privacyguides@lemmy.one !privacy@lemmy.ml !privatelife@lemmy.ml !linuxphones@lemmy.ml !fossdroid@social.fossware.space !fdroid@lemmy.ml

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml

Byereddithellolemmy@lemmy.world

chevy9294@monero.town

Why Signal Calls Google (media.ccc.de)

submitted 11 hours ago by 45o3b@lemmy.ml to c/degoogle@lemmy.ml

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I just started my de-googling journey recently, and so the mechanics of notifications were still unclear to me, and I found this video super helpful.

It explains how most mobile messaging apps (including privacy-focused ones like Signal) rely on Google and Apple's centralized servers to deliver push notifications, which exposes vast amounts of user metadata.

Here's the YT link, for people who prefer it: https://youtu.be/c3ennD3wKn0

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] csolisr@hub.azkware.net 16 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

This is the reason why I went out of my way to use Molly (a fork of Signal), since it supports delivering the push notifications through a self-hosted server instead. Unfortunately the process is complex: it requires both a method to deliver the notifications to your phone via UnifiedPush (an alternative to Google's push system that generally suffices on its own) and a compatibility service called MollySocket (that bridges Signal's notifications with the UnifiedPush provider). Both typically need a self-hosted server and specific configuration to talk to each other though. And I don't even have any contacts that use Signal anymore, so, well...!

[–] Redjard@reddthat.com 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

You can use push providers if you trust them. For example mozilla hosts one.

The MollySocket service also does not need and does not have decryption keys, only keys to request encrypted messages from signal servers. Still not something I would want to run on someone elses server without serious privacy considerations.

[–] csolisr@hub.azkware.net 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Yup, that's why I use my own server to host both MollySocket and UnifiedPush (via NTFY).

[–] skyline2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

NTFY can provide UnifiedPush? I didn't know that!

[–] csolisr@hub.azkware.net 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, you only need to ensure your instance of ntfy allows public access to all items with the up prefix in the settings.

[–] csolisr@hub.azkware.net 1 points 4 hours ago

Oh and then set your mobile app to enable UP in the settings of course!