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Signal’s first paid feature adds encrypted media and message backups (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 week ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/privacy@programming.dev

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Signal is launching its first paid feature: the ability to make secure, end-to-end encrypted backups of your media history older than 45 days and of your text message history for $1.99 per month.

“Media requires a lot of storage, and storing and transferring large amounts of data is expensive,” Signal’s VP of engineering, Jim O’Leary, says in a blog post. “As a nonprofit that refuses to collect or sell your data, Signal needs to cover those costs differently than other tech organizations that offer similar products but support themselves by selling ads and monetizing data.”

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[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Crucial detail:

The backup archives are “stored without a direct link to a specific backup payment or Signal user account,” O’Leary says. You’ll use a recovery key to unlock your backups, but if you lose that key, the company “cannot help you recover it.”

And this reader comment was clarifying IMO:

This solves a user issue of changing a phone and their Signal message history is just gone, which to normal users, is not acceptable.

Keeping them definitely seems to increase possible risks, but for most people this is a requirement, so good move on their part (guessing it's optional) - when it's rolled out.