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> Why would supposedly secure communicator use actual phone number as identifier is beyond me. It's pretty simple - user friendliness and sign-up friction. Si
by 0xdeadb00f 5y ago
> Why would supposedly secure communicator use actual phone number as identifier is beyond me.
It's pretty simple - user friendliness and sign-up friction.
Signal's main market is not us HN user tech bros who want (pseudo)anonymity. It's main market is closer to regular people, the same people who are fine with using WhatsApp or Facebook messenger or whatever, with their phone number.
They also want it to be as easy as possible for new users to sign up. Simply enter your phone number and boom you have a signal account. With email the sign up process is not insanely difficult - but its still more steps than phone signup for the regular person.
- jabbany 5y agoDoesn't explain why _only_ phone numbers are (currently) supported. Having phone numbers as the default or even asking permission to import your contacts would have been fine-ish if it was also possible to register using another anonymous method like email... One counterpoint to using phone numbers: In China mobile phone numbers are almost universally enforced as your digital identifier because it makes surveillance extremely easy for a government while making it relatively hard for platforms themselves. Registering for a phone number mandates an ID check at the point of the service provider. This means that with a phone number based login, (1) you can be largely anonymous to platforms as you can have > 1 phone number, (2) you have 2fa built in automatically, but also (3) that the government can easily figure out who owns what accounts because your accounts are directly linked to your phone(s) and your phone(s) directly to you. It would be a great step forward if Signal moves towards alternate verifications that don't involve phone numbers...