• 4am@lemmy.zip
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    6 hours ago

    Notifications go through FireBase Cloud Messaging (FCM) on Android. They bounce off a Google server. Even from local, on-device apps.

    Same with iOS.

    They can read and store every one of them, and you don’t control the encryption keys.

    • CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone
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      2 hours ago

      Signal only sends a “new message, retrieve the rest from Signal” ping to your phone through Firebase. It doesn’t contain message details, just that you have a new message.

    • Björn@swg-empire.de
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      5 hours ago

      But they only instruct Signal to wake up and download whatever is waiting. They don’t contain the message contents.

      • bearboiblake@pawb.social
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        5 hours ago

        If you don’t use Google Play Services, you don’t get push notifications, so yes. Libre reimplementations of Google Play Services such as Gapps etc. or alternative push notification providers do not circumvent this issue, except possibly self-hosted push notification providers. This approach is really rare though and limited generally to very few apps.

        • Semperverus@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Is this true if you don’t have Google Play Services but the person you’re messaging does? Is one person cutting GPS out enough?

          • bearboiblake@pawb.social
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            5 hours ago

            The message you send them would probably go through as a push notification to them, but the message they send you wouldn’t.