Enfys J. Book [they/them]Feb 6, 2025

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”)

Show threadEnfys J. Book [they/them]Feb 6, 2025
Note that your Android instructions may differ depending on your model. Those worked for my Pixel, but please feel free to chime in with directions for other models.
Show threadkaasweFeb 6, 2025
@EnfysBook
And remember to check those settings after every update as things tends to change.
Show threadLight Owl ☸️Feb 7, 2025

@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?

#infosec #signal #android #google #privacy

Show threadErik Nygren Feb 7, 2025
@sbb @kaaswe @EnfysBook This is a point Naomi Wu has been making for years: any app like Signal is only as good as it's runtime environment. In HK and China a real problem is people installing third party keyboards onto their devices which leak data to the government. Better use education of these risks within #Signal would be valuable even if that's hard to do.
Show threadLight Owl ☸️Feb 7, 2025

@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?

Show threadCambionn

@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.

Feb 7, 2025 at 1:28pmWeb