signal requires a phone number to sign up. a phone number could be used to trace your signal account back to you. so why do people, especially privacy enthusiasts and experts (like edward snowden), still use it and endorse it when it lacks anonymity in that sense? i get that people could use a voip number or something to sign up, but still.
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Privacy isn’t anonymity. Signal promises privacy, not anonymity.
Anonymity is often prerequisite to privacy.
This is a well known issue for a lot of people and signal has been promising to fix this for years. Using a phone # for verification reduces spam and bot accounts, but like you said it drastically reduces anonymity.
That said, anonymity != privacy. You could anonymously place a note on a car telling the owner to learn to park, but it’s not private since anyone walking by could read it. Likewise you can send an encrypted signal message to another user who knows who you are, so it’s private, but not anonymous.
Remember, privacy and anonymity are not the same thing. Signal is an app for private communications, not anonymous communications.
You can have privacy without anonymity, and you can have anonymity without privacy, and either/both of those can be secure or insecure.
Signal is great for private communication with people you already know and trust. I was in a situation where I was organizing with new friends, and we had a big group chat on Signal. I cloned Signal to a work profile, and registered it with a cheap VOIP number, so that I could keep my real phone number separate from my political organizing activities.
How is your VOIP cheap exactly? 🤔🤔🤔
It’s $5/mo from jmp.chat
This is way not cheap 😅😅😅😅
One of the main issues of jmp chat is the price
There are some VoIP services that are $20 a year, and I wanted to compare if there’s anything interesting and cheap
Gotcha. It’s worth it for me, but cheaper is better! You can probably use a google voice number (which is free) to register Signal.
Signal is a privacy first app. Do I wish it would not use a telephone number? Absolutely! But they never claim to be anonymous. This said with something like https://juicysms.com you can register signal and many other services with a number in the USA, the Netherlands or the UK (the Netherlands is the best option here)
If you look for an app what don’t need a telephone number check simplex or session. Perhaps something like the matrix protocol and element would be a great option too.
Try https://simplex.chat. Better privacy and no phone number required.
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Well I don’t get spam from signal. However if you want anonymity find something else. Or don’t talk to anyone. Most of our cellphones leak all kinds of data you won’t get privacy in most phones and you shouldn’t expect it either.
Jami?
