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Signal: requires disclosing a phone number to everyone you use it with
by dheera 5y ago
Signal: requires disclosing a phone number to everyone you use it with
- noja 5y agoWhich means the other person knows it's me, right?
- dave5104 5y agoMight be troublesome if you don't want the other person to know it's you, though. But that's probably not a problem in day to day communication with family and friends.
- rOOb85 5y ago> Might be troublesome if you don't want the other person to know it's you, though. You're mixing privacy and anonymity. Signal offers privacy from snooping, they have never claimed or tried to provide anonymity. Two very different use cases.
- dheera 5y agoThere are better ways to verify someone is who you think they are, e.g. asking them about an inside joke that you only told them in person at some point in the past, or what art you have up on the wall in your dining room. Also, you might in some cases want to share knowledge or evidence without disclosing your identity, and phone numbers miserably fail for that use case.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> Signal: requires disclosing a phone number to everyone you use it with Signal also got distracted with a cryptocurrency scheme [1]. That shot their credibility in many circles. [1] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/04/wtf-signal-adds-cryptocurrency-support.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/04/wtf-signal-ad...
- 411111111111111 5y agoNot exactly. They're evaluating adding micro payments to the app. These micro payments will be handled by a third party which uses a crypto currency in the exchange. The feature itself is good imo. Though I'm prolly never gonna use it because of the crypto intermediary.
- tptacek 5y agoFirst, the "also" is misplaced. Signal's telephone number requirement is a privacy feature; it's not that Signal wants your phone number, but that using phone numbers as identifiers allows them to build a social graph --- every mainstream messaging app involves a social graph --- without keeping plaintext contact lists serverside, which is what every other mainstream messenger does. That's not a small thing; the information in those contact lists is one of the highest priority targets for any state-level adversary. I don't love the cryptocurrency stuff either. I'm not defending it. But "shot their credibility" is an overstatement.
- JumpCrisscross 5y agoFair on both points. The “also” is misplaced as most users have zero problem with Signal processing their contacts. And “shot their credibility” was hyperbole. “Severely damaged, albeit repairably” is more accurate.