https://i.imgur.com/bdUhqth.png
https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1358903379515199488
Literally the first thing on their Twitter feed!
Sorry but if you are unable to see that Signal are clearly trying to position themselves as a WhatsApp alternative there is no point in continuing this conversation.
4/5 of their last few tweets all seem to be pitching themselves as an alternative to WhatsApp / Facebook / targeted advertising? Realistically though their current position is you have to choose privacy or backups.
"We believe in targeted admirizing, not targeted advertising. Happy Valentine's Day from all of us at Signal."
"We've discovered that @tecnomobile devices (some of the most popular phones in Africa) enable notifications for @Facebook apps like @WhatsApp, but block Signal notifications by default. Privacy should be the default."
"Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp trying to collect your data when you're on Signal" (confused guy gif)
"If you see the shadow of looming advertisements in your current messaging app, make an early Spring to something better."
"January just ended, but if one of your New Year's Resolutions was to break up with Facebook there is still plenty of time."
Why enable something that could introduce additional security risks when it's both cheaper and safer not to develop that feature in the first place?
> All I have seen from Signal on social media for the past month is how they are the perfect alternative to WhatsApp.
Huh, I've not gotten that vibe at all after speaking with some of the people at Signal. They know that their product is not for absolutely everyone and quick glance at their Twitter doesn't seem to paint the picture you're seeing either. You have any specific examples you could point me to?
> It is not "entitled" to want to protect my data
Of course not and that was also not my point... The entitlement comes from you declaring that Signal is wrong here while not actually understanding the other perspective that they are operating from (which is different from yours, obviously).
> But now for chat conversations apparently backups are pointless and we shouldn't be doing them???
Again, if you are subscribing to the same worldview as the team of Signal is subscribed to, then yes, you shouldn't backup your ephemeral chat conversations. If you're instead interested in persisting your conversations, Telegram/Whatsapp/whatever probably fits your use case better and you feel free to use those instead.
Either you use a chat application that makes absolutely zero compromises on security and privacy but might have worse UX, or you chose a chat application that does compromise on those things but have a better UI. Your entitlement is that you think you can change Signals whole mission because you actually should be using a different chat application.