Using Signal to Communicate Securely

You want to contribute to defeating the Trump agenda, but you don’t know where to start. At the same time, you’re a bit nervous about doing anything in public because, well, let’s face it, Trump seems hell-bent on establishing himself as an autocrat. And we all know how autocrats respond to dissent!

So how does one securely communicate with others who wish to dissent? Certainly not by using social media, email, or texting.

The media are replete with stories about folks who thought they were having private discussions on Twitter, Facebook or other platforms that were in fact, totally public–usually because of a silly user error. Likewise, there are plenty of stories out there about folks whose private communications were subpoenaed or hacked. And we all know what happened to Hillary Clinton’s campaign once the hackers penetrated their emails.

So if you can’t use Twitter or Facebook to organize, and if regular phone calls, emails, and texting are similarly insecure, what tool can you use to securely communicate?

Use Signal!

We suggest you use Signal, a free iOS and Android application made by Whisper Systems. With it, you can securely text, group chat, share videos and documents, and call others via the platform.

Everything is done via end-to-end encryption so Whisper Systems has no visibility into what you’re doing — even if they’re subpoenaed, they have no information to give out. Even the amount of metadata they collect (who participated, when they participated, etc) is severely curtailed.

And by curtailed we mean, they know when you sign up for Signal, and the last time you used it, and that’s about it. For more information, check out this story.

Getting Started

Here’s how to get started:

1. Download the Signal app onto your phone. (On iOS, you’ll find it in the App Store. Android users can find it on Google Play.)
2. Once the app is on your phone, sign up by registering your mobile phone number.
3. They’ll send you a six-digit confirmation code via SMS.
4. Enter that confirmation code into the app and you’re signed up!
5. The final step is giving Signal access to your contacts – you’ll need that in order to identify other Signal users.

The first time you open Signal and start a chat or call, you’ll see all the folks from your Contacts who have downloaded Signal. If you don’t have their registered Signal phone number, you won’t see them.

A great tip is to ask folks if they’re on Signal – once they download and register, you can start talking securely.

Here’s a great article on how to use Signal. It’s a great write up by the good folks at EFF.