this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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Privacy

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I remember a time when visiting a website that opens a javacript dialog box asking for your name so the message "hi " could be displayed was baulked at.

Why does signal want a phone number to register? Is there a better alternative?

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[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 10 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

I was unaware of this change, and it's perfectly acceptable. No one has any ground to lambast Signal for requiring phone numbers to get an account. I think that's a perfectly reasonable spam mitigation technique. The issue is having to shotgun your phone number to every Howard and Susan that you want to use Signal to communicate with.

This was honestly the only thing holding me back from actually using Signal. I'll likely register for an account now.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 5 points 9 hours ago

If you are even remotely involved in any activist type of things, you certainly don't want this US government honeypot have your phone-number and device id.

[–] MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca 1 points 12 hours ago

Spam accounts are clearly the biggest factor for not letting anyone just sign up with an email. Although getting a new email without a phone verification is getting increasingly hard now.