“When you use Signal, your data is stored in encrypted form on your devices. The only information that is stored on the Signal servers for each account is the phone number you registered with, the date and time you joined the service, and the date you last logged on.”
Signal is great. I wish more people used it because I trust it more than anything that’s a product of Facebook. No matter what they claim, I always worry there’s something they aren’t admitting to.
The WhatsApp creator left Facebook early, leaving $850 million behind, because he thought they were pure evil, and then he went to the signal creators and threw money at them to not sell or turn into a shit show. He is now the interim CEO of signal. He plans to keep it as a private foundation that is using a donation model to keep it going.
Also, if you work for an employer that asks you to download signal for work communication, make sure you record all conversations by screenshots or screen video. People can wipe signal communications remotely and this can give employers deniability while putting things on the employee. Practice CYA at all times.
I abandoned Whatsapp several years ago and since then have used Signal nearly every day (to keep in touch with a handful of friends), have had a recurring monthly donation set up for a couple of years now.
One on the one hand there’s the privacy, but what clinched it for me originally was the ability to seamlessly switch from my tablet to the cellphone to the desktop, all Apple. Signal was (and probably still is) better at this than Whatsapp.