Basically just the title, delete this if it’s not the right community.
I hate iphones and apple stuff for obvious reasons. But I am forced to use it to some degree. I just want to get a community consensus on any problems with signal being shared, seen, monitored, or sent to apple servers or icloud while being used on an iphone.
iPhone isn’t safe
I cannot wait to get rid of mine
It is a listening device for the oligarch class
It is their property even tho you paid for it.
Tim Cook is instrumental in the fascist encroachment in our lives.
There’s a lot of reasons why I think Signal on an iPhone may not be as private as on a FOSS Android ROM.
First thing is that you are probably getting your notifications from an Apple server. While Apple cannot see the message content, it os possible that they are still collecting some metadata, as when is the user receiving messages, etc.
Second, the usage of keyboard. I cannot prove that Apple is keylogging your every keyboard stroke, but I don’t think anyone can disprove it either. On Android, we always ask users to use a FOSS keyboard, as some keyboard apps look at the screen and read messages to “provide better text prediction”.
Last is app usage metadata. Apple is still storing all the information about how many times you unlock the phone and how much you use Signal, how many times you open the app in a day, when and (maybe even) why you open the app. Which photos you are sharing through your photos app with Signal, such information is also valuable.
I would say most of your conversations are private, as Signal’s developers are very knowledgeable and they know what they are doing.
But if you have a skeptical mind like I do, or even like most people here do, I would not trust them a bit because of their proprietary code. You cannot be completely sure what they are doing. You just have to trust Apple, which most of here don’t.
It’s only as safe as Apple, which is to say you can’t trust them. If you have AI enabled it’ll be scanning everything (to include signal) to learn your habits and assist you “better”.
As long as you can trust Apple, sure
And signal, considering its a centralized US company that has your phone number.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prism_slide_5.jpg
Note that Apple has been participating for more than 12 years.
What should a screenshot that is about 12 years old prove or not prove? Technology has advanced significantly since then. Over the past decade, we’ve developed a range of new encryption algorithms, improved password hashing methods, TLS 1.3, post-quantum cryptography, and much more. The “Game of Trust” can be extended indefinitely, but using a 12-year-old screenshot as evidence for a situation in 2025 is questionable.
The most sophisticated door lock is worth nothing if you have an open window beside the door.
Apple only needs to log keys, or tap the mic before encryption. And the CPU can also have a back dore.
This applies to all devices and is not specific to Apple, as long as you don’t audit and comprehend every piece of software involved.
No, Apple bent the knee for concessions on tarifs. If you live in the US the chance your comms are backdoored on iOs is 100%.
As an empiricist I cringe at any statement given with 100% certainty.
Cool, shit is bad for you if you eat it, 100%.
Go try that now.
It is always the same issues in fact. You should consider your threat model before all. Then, consider the Signal app, then your iPhone supposed to be updated, trusted, with ADP enabled, biometric lock with erasure after 10 failures, etc. Then consider your ISP, then your country. Etc, etc. You should also compare the contexts. Is an iPhone “better” than a low or middle ranges Android-powered smartphones? For sure, yes. Is it better than high-range expansive smartphones with Android ? Or Pixel ones? Not that sure. And compared to GrapheneOS or /e/? Pretty sure not that much. You can also compare messaging solutions. Is Signal better than WhatApp? Of course yes. But what about XMPP and Matrix for example?
And what are your use cases? Remember your threat model. If you are an activist, a journalist or a whistleblower your needs may be different than a “commons citizen worried about its privacy.
In few words, the only pain point I see is the fact than iOS is proprietary and runs non libre source code and Apple devices than APN. But Android devices are not so much different. It does not mean the solution is not private or efficient, if we succeed in defining a definition of “private or efficient”.
In a nutshell, it could be considered as good. But not perfect.
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Theoretically: fuck no. Private operating system, not open source code, installation source is Apple itself, Apple helps law enforcement, Prism scooped up all unencrypted data.
Practically: signal wouldn’t keep developing an iOS app if there was hard evidence Apple couldn’t be trusted, Apple gives plenty of options for your data to not be collected in plain text and given to law enforcement (turn off iCloud backups, turn off biometrics, lockdown mode, advanced data protection) but not default because they’re trying to balance being a luxury product with compliance, as a luxury product it’s used by rich people and rich people love their privacy (citation needed), Apple is the only practical choice if you don’t get a google pixel, FBI is always fighting them on allowing full phone encryption, they rolled out a contact encryption key verification feature for their own iMessage.
Signal explicitly doesn’t allow its files to be uploaded to iCloud. You practically will be fine using it on iOS. Unless you are in China which has its own iCloud/Apple servers, or the UK where Apple disabled advanced data protection.
Apple provides encryption for its customers, but not by default. All its encryption features hint to me that they would prefer not having anything to hand over to the hundreds of law enforcement agency’s around the planet, but don’t want to piss them off by making it default. This aligns with it being a hardware and service company, vs the advertising company Google.
Privacyguides has a page on steps you can take in your iPhone to harden it.
You are in a better situation than most. Make plans to get onto a graphene pixel. But if that wasn’t available then an iPhone is the next best choice.
