If you use Signal, Discord, or any other messaging app and you DON'T want Google or Apple monitoring/reading/learning from your messages, follow these steps.
Android:
1. Open Google app
2. Tap your profile photo
3. Settings
4. Google Assistant
5. "Your Apps"
6. Choose the app (e.g., Signal)
7. Toggle "Let your assistant learn from this app" off
iPhone:
1. Settings
2. Apps
3. Choose the app (e.g., Signal)
4. Toggle Apple intelligence or Siri settings to off (“learn from this app”)
@EnfysBook Ditto. I have both the Google and Assistant apps disabled on my Android phone, and I'm loth to re-enable them just to tweak a configuration option unless it's really necessary.
@r3vilo @MLE_online @EnfysBook I have never turned it on and all settings show it is not activated BUT I had to UNCHECK all of the apps it is "learning from"
So, yeah you have to opt out even if you never turned it on
@kaaswe @EnfysBook Ok, silly question. Since Google will likely just "oopsy-daisy" silently re-enable this AI oversight of apps like Signal in future Android updates, doesn't that really compromise Signal's integrity as a "private" app?
How "private" is an app like Signal really, considering it's default shoulder-surfed by Google's AI on ~95% of all Android phones, where the normies of the world *aren't* doing the locking-down (attempting to retain privacy - but isn't the horse already out the barn by that point?), as suggested in the OP?
On stock #Android NOTHING is private.
Use a decent #CustomROM and you're fine.
@sbb @EnfysBook
It’s not really something Signal can control, as you say it’s the OS. You have the same problem on iPhone too, or running Signal on your computer.
In this case I’d say for now, iPhone is more secure in concern for privacy if you disable Siri, tomorrow this could change.
On a computer. Run Linux. Don’t use windows.
@Devourer_ITA @sbb @kaaswe @EnfysBook Not necessarily. The Google assistant is accessing it on the end-client, where it gets decrypted. After all, it's "end-2-end" encryption, not "always encrypted". Else you wouldn't be able to read the messages yourself either.
If you can open it there, the OS itself can technically too. Be it officially intended that way or by some sneaky methods behind your back. So if you wanna be safe you need to ensure you can trust the OS not too.
@nygren @kaaswe @EnfysBook I agree with you and Wu here. It's just that it dawns on me that there is little incentive to advocate #Signal any longer, as any alternative to say, #WhatsApp.
If you use #WhatsApp, #Meta spies on you. If you use #Signal, guess what, #Google/Alphabet or #Apple are the ones spying on you instead (with a small minority of users opting out - that is until an "oopsie daisy" re-enablement undoes this opt-out as mentioned).
What privacy advantage does Signal _really_ have any longer, when such privacy loss afflicts both these apps - one big corp doing it or another?
Signal still has very much high value compared to say WhatsApp, because Signal is outside US, so the privacy for your account is much better.
Edit: This information is not correct. Signal is a US based company.
@mbrubeck @sbb @nygren @EnfysBook
Yes you are correct.
I'm sorry I don't know where I got that from.
@sbb @nygren @kaaswe @EnfysBook WhatsApp also lets the assistant access itself tho, so that one is double tracked (by both Google and Meta). So using Signal is still one big tracker less, and every bit counts when it comes to privacy & security.
But other than that. Signal itself is not unsafe, the OS is. The only solution for that is using a different OS. Signal is good privacy-wise, Android/iOS is not.
@pianosaurus @EnfysBook I still have access to all those settings. They are under:
Settings > Google
Which is not the same as:
Google > Settings
Yes, they are bad at naming things.
@veronica @EnfysBook I'm pretty sure the app activities aren't tracked by the Google app itself, so I'm not sure about the "not collecting your activities in it" part. I'm curious though, so I'll try to do some experiments later.
You are right that the same settings are available online: https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols/webandapp
@pianosaurus Your activities in the app itself must naturally be reported by the app. Since I'm not using the app, and it is prevented from running, it's not collecting anything?
Activities tracking is of course a global Google "feature", which can be disabled from the account settings, which can also be accessed from the phone without the Google app.
I don't understand the issue.
@veronica I think we're not on the same page regarding what "the app" means, since we are talking about multiple apps interacting. And also, for me, words difficult with cave brain.
There's the Google app, and the app being tracked. The example from OP was Signal. The activities that are tracked as far as I can tell, are when Signal started and stopped, where it was installed from, and which device it was running on.
My untested assumption is that this tracking of Signal activity happens unrelated to whether or not the Google app is enabled, and that the activity itself is reported to google's backend by some other OS service.
@pianosaurus It was you who claimed that the Google app controlled the tracking, and my entire point is that I don't think disabling the Google app makes any difference to what tracking you can disable.
If the tracking is specific to the Google app, then I don't see why disabling the app should let it continue. All general settings are available without the app.
To be honest, I don't really know what the Google app does, because it's the first thing I disable on a new phone.
@veronica I claimed it controls the tracking _setting_ (not that it is doing the tracking), before you correctly pointed out that you can disable this via the web too. I think we are actually in full agreement then. I'm blame myself for not making myself understood.
The caveat is that the per-app setting for the assistant (that the original post was referring to) doesn't seem to be available on the web. At least, I cannot find it.
@pianosaurus Yes, I cannot find that either, so I was wondering if it is the Google app that does that. It is clear that the Google app does data collection too. But again, I have blocked it since I bought the phone in 2021, and I have no idea what they've done with it since.
I'm also missing all the AI stuff they claim to have added in notices I get from them, so disabling the Google app seems to take a bunch of stuff with it.
I'm also on Samsung, who replace some things. 🤷♀️
Same as you.
And life is not bad without this app! 
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@alisynthesis Honest question: why use GrapheneOS if you're just going to install and use all the Google spyware?
@alisynthesis Ah, it sounded like you had Google Assistant installed! I misunderstood.
@alisynthesis I was once young and stupid too! But I'm not so young anymore.
@doktorlond @EnfysBook graphene is really great!
Edit: you have to have a pixel to use it.
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