STOP Using Proton & Signal? Here’s the TRUTH

Are Proton privacy and the Signal messaging app still secure? Every year this gets called into question, yet rarely is the full story ever told. In this video, Josh explains what's really happening with these privacy and security apps as well as how it affects YOU directly.

YES, I still use and recommend Proton & Signal:

If you care about your personal security and privacy online, download my free security checklist here:

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Video Timestamps
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0:00 - Are Proton & Signal still secure?
0:36 - Cybersecurity confirmation bias
1:20 - Privacy companies & government data requests
2:15 - Encryption & data requests
3:41 - Signal accused of having encryption broken
5:12 - Understanding personal OPSEC with privacy apps
5:50 - How to Remove Proton Recovery Email address
6:23 - How to Hide IP address from Proton
6:36 - Practical privacy in the digital age
7:21 - Should you stop using Proton & Signal?
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It's easy to get swept up in the news that a privacy company has handed over user data to a government intelligence agency. But what are the limitations of companies like @ProtonAG or Signal? Or perhaps more importantly, what is YOUR responsibility when using such apps, considering the fact that no single software or service can guarantee you privacy and anonymity?

#privacymatters #cybersecurity #onlineprivacy

PANTOMIME

[donh]

There have been multiple* court cases where law enforcement agencies submitted a subpeona to signal. And signal replied "Sorry, we have no data" If it were a front for the US govt the result SHOULD be different. HOWEVER if enough people were made to believe that Signal was insecure, they might abandon an actual secure platform.

[gfthfdecghbveyew]

I've been using Proton services for a while now and I must say this is the only company which provides both anonymity and convenience at there highest levels.

[placeholder]

This is what so many people don't seem to understand, a company HAS to hand over data asked of them by law otherwise they will get shut down and possibly get employees jailed. You have to minimise what data you give to ANY service.

[LabelsAreMeaningless]

I appreciate you talking about the big picture instead of being emotional and reactive like so many tend to be. I'm still going to use Proton. I'd also like to have people ask themselves one thing. If you're abandoning Proton due to fear of security, who exactly are you switching to? Proton is still the best available without making your own email server and making sure everything is encrypted with nothing overlooked in terms of security.

Instead of freaking out and shooting yourself in the foot, think through what you're going to do, be reasonable and rational and then make your decisions.

[ThatGuy.]

Personally I still use Proton and have for over a year now. In my case it is because I wanted a service with a good reputation and does not have any notable security issues.

I also take into account that the level of security of my account is truly on me not Proton. Proton provides the service and Proton is a Swiss owned company.

If you want something secure, it is YOUR job to make it secure over the provider.

[henrik]

Great video! Especially the last part where you state the obvious fact - something that most people in this always online world fail to realise - don't share every damn part of your life with the rest of the world.

[cryingwater]

Hello,

I studied the protocol behind Signal, and it's ignorant to say that Signal is insecure. It uses edge technology when it comes to cryptography. It will be BIG BIG news if it's broken by someone.

[dubz]

Your title is borderline clickbait. It comes off as "You should stop using it" not "Should you stop using it". All falls on personal OpSec, as you mentioned.

[hhbadarin]

Thank you so much, many people need to hear this and use their minds before making judgements!

[MidianNiles]

Thank you for making this video. The message here isn't letting these vendors off the hook; it's a reality check for the digital frontier as a whole. More specifically "due process". It's the only 'real' sense of security we need to focus on, "did an agency use due process?" But also (and more importantly) are software vendors 'only' providing information under circumstances of due process? As a systems administrator, I applaud the message of User responsibilities and as a personal privacy advocate, I salute the message of due process.

Fear mongering and baseless accusations run rampant over social media outlets as it is. Thank you for providing a voice of reason and a means of laying a basic framework of the legal challenges.

[dienand_]

If your goal is to hide from government then using any of these services is not enough because they are legally compelled to hand your data over. If your goal is to protect yourself from other kinds of threats then absolutely use these services.

[gerowen]

Given the open source nature of Signal I have a feeling that IF somebody's Signal messages were compromised and used against them in court, it wasn't because of a flaw in Signal, but because they made some other mistake with their OPSEC. Perhaps their device, or the device of the person they were talking to, was infected with some sort of malware that could read the messages after they arrived on the device. End-to-end encryption only means from one end to the other, but the messages have to be decrypted once they arrive on a device or else they couldn't be read, so malware running locally on the device could potentially read them. It's also possible, though less likely that they managed to add a device to somebody's Signal account and they didn't notice it because they don't regularly check which devices are authorized to send/receive messages for that account. With how modern encryption works, it's much easier to trick somebody into installing a piece of malware than it is to break the encryption.

[Kirk-ojqm]

The reality is this: If you are online, there is no way to be completely secure from online threats.

Proton and Signal give you better tools to safeguard your privacy than others, by a significant margin. They are still however online.

It took a multi-national government order with proof of terrorism to just get the recovery email address. If that isn't secure, then what is?

Well created video, thanks for sharing.

[snowingfate]

Signal is open source and has gone through several law suits. Proton is very similar in that the law suits it is gone though proves that they will only give over what they keep, which is nothing. This is very similar to Private internet access.

[Anonymous]

When will people stop trying to make email private? NEVER send or receive sensitive information over email. If you need to send documents, send links over email that require authentication. You'll notice that any bank ever will not send statements over email: it's not secure. Never was, and never will be.

[mahirjan]

Thanks Josh. I’m glad you speak with a voice of reason!

[heMech]

Proton yeah, but Signal is open source I've looked at the code myself, your data is 100% safe, because Signal by design is made so that the company (even if it wanted) can't access any of your data except for your number (which the person requesting your data already needs) and account creation date.

[macbitz]

It amuses me how people seem to be worried that Proton provided an email address in response to a court order and yet didn't seem to care about the subsequent apprehension of a terrorist 🤔 I also saw a YouTuber recently bemoaning the fact that Proton do NOT mine and analyse your emails so that they can serve targetted ads 🤦🏻‍♂ Thank you Josh for being a voice of reason in an increasingly crazy world!

[asiliria]

I keep seeing not only news but messages from friends and other acquaintances in Linux and privacy communities that keep propagating a lot of these conspiracies. I agree most of the time that people are not just doing their jobs in the security field right.
Thanks for going over them in such a manner! 🤩

[asadon]

The same people complaining about companies legally being required to hand over data they have are here in a YouTube channels comment section… a Google app.