this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2024
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Privacy
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Because you can't have privacy if a company asks for your phone number.
Depends, who do you want to shield what information from? Signal knows all of their users’ phone numbers. You can hide it from other Signal users. All depends on your threat model.
The NSA
Right, then Signal might not be the best option. The NSA can easily track who’s using Signal, and possibly do some traffic correlation to reveal who’s talking to who.
But to state that there is no privacy on Signal at all is a bit of a stretch.
Yes but, I ain't joining a random group I found on Internet on a service which has my phone number. Which can be easily traced back to me. Because I don't know who all the members are then if someone is on the list then that will put me also on the list. If it was something like matrix where even though the group could be unencrypted and open to all. I can use Qubes and whonix to make sure that some stupid idiot doesn't put me on a watchlist I don't want.
But if I know all the members and I or someone I trust controls who can join then anonymity isn't a concern security is and in that scenario yes I'll definitely be using signal. I already am. But not here.
Only the hash of your phone number.
How exactly is it hashed? There aren't that many possible phone numbers, so it might be viable to just try every valid number until you find one that matches
Here's what Signal says: https://signal.org/blog/contact-discovery/
Good correction, thanks
Burner numbers are pretty easy to come by...
Known what's easier? A username.
Not for everyone. Check your privilege.
I mean online providers like jmp.chat, my sudo, and virtualsim will hook you up for a couple of bucks. So sure, if you are seriously cash constrained or crypto is unobtainable for you, then not so easy.
If you use one of those accounts, someone will just take over your account after some weeks/months
Like anyone's doing that just to talk to you.
What @jagged_circle said but also. Even if you were lucky enough to be born in a country where you don't have to give government I'd and thumb print just to get a goddamn sim card. It is still feasible to trace it back to you if you are not careful and there are a lot of ways you can slip up.
Like if you use a phone/device which is know to be yours then even if you buy new prepaid sim card anonymously your ID will be revealed due to same IMEI.
Or if you turn it on in a public area where cops know that you are there (maybe because they caught you on a camera) even though this is public area how many people connected to that tower are using burner sims, and how many of those are into extreme privacy or into something they suspect you to be involved.
And so many other scenarios and at the end it will come down to humane error which will be very tricky to avoid in this case. Whereas in case of being online you can properly setup iptable rules. Qubes, whonix, etc. Test it yourself that even if your VPN/TOR/I2P/etc. Goes down you're not reviling your true IP