In high school, I wrote a play for my creative writing class where I named the main character Jrue—named after Jrue Holiday, one of my favorite basketball players.
I got someone to use Signal recently, because I don't text outside of it. Last week, she asked me why that is. I sent this Bruce Schneier essay on the eternal value of privacy to someone who knows absolutely nothing about tech, and she understood.
I'm gonna try it again next time it comes up with someone else. I think this essay does a really good job of putting it into perspective, so I'm hoping this is the silver bullet I can continue to send when someone asks.
Overall, in general, I try to keep it in real world terms. Why do you close the door when you go to the bathroom? Why do you lock your doors? Why do you have curtains/blinds? etc., along with what some other intelligent people responded here.
I'm not sure what you mean by "gave up on SMS." What were they supposed to do with SMS (which is an outdated protocol anyways)? I get the small convenience of sending all your messages from one app (Signal), but I also understand the justification and wanting to prevent confusion about texting Signal-encrypted messages vs. SMS messages from the same app.
I can't speak to the whole blocking thing, but it sounds like an extremely unique, isolated instance.
You also have to open the gallery to send two pics instead of being able to select multiple.
Seems like a very minor UX issue that can be fixed and is not worth sending unencrypted messages for.
Also: Saying Signal "missed its shot" is very cynical and absolutist, which in turn can make people feel hopeless about getting their digital privacy back and taking back at lest some control of their lives, which doesn't exactly advance the values of the privacy community.
I understand your sentiment, and I do agree that costumers gotta be more aware about what they're getting into.
With that said, consumers can't be blamed for legislative failures. That's what this is, at its core.
When people signed up to Facebook, they just wanted to keep in touch with their friends. When people signed up for Instagram, they just wanted to share pictures. They didn't want to be endlessly exploited.
Same thing here. People just wanna understand their genealogy. Wanting to know your ancestry, shouldn't come at the expense of incredibly privacy-invading practices.
Why is it that we as consumers need to share to these horrendous business practices if we wanna know our ancestry? Why are there no protections in place? Is it realistic/reasonable to have to read all this incomprehensible language?
If I was Microsoft, I'd wanna know too. After all, it's a race for every single one of our data points, and then some.
Either way, you gotta admit it's ironically funny that Microsoft wants to keep/poach Chrome users into their own... wait for it... Chromium-based browser.
I've never understood this either, given the whole notion and enthusiasm behind decentralization. I get the trade-offs regarding privacy, security, and convenience, but if you're really tryna start a movement, and you really believe in the concept and principles of something like cryptocurrency, it seems like your communities and communication channels should also reflect similar values.
In high school, I wrote a play for my creative writing class where I named the main character Jrue—named after Jrue Holiday, one of my favorite basketball players.
I remember the teacher got a kick out of it.