this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
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Privacy

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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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[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

How is your VOIP cheap exactly? ๐Ÿค”๐Ÿค”๐Ÿค”

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is way not cheap ๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜…

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

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Try https://simplex.chat. Better privacy and no phone number required.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Privacy isn't anonymity. Signal promises privacy, not anonymity.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My privacy can't be protected without anonymity. So signal provides neither

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's like saying there's no point in having bathroom doors because everyone can see you going in.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It is if "using bathrooms" can get you kidnapped by uniformed gangsters in your country

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

Then you need both anonymity and privacy. Sometimes you do need both but they're not the same concept.

Privacy without anonymity is you using the bathroom with everyone seeing you walking in. They know you used the bathroom but have no idea what you did inside.

Anonymity without privacy is like you pissing on the street with a ski mask on. Everyone saw what you did but no one knows who you are.

Having both is walking into the bathroom with a ski mask on. No one knows who you are nor what you did inside.