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Signal Finally Rolls Out Usernames, So You Can Keep Your Phone Number Private (www.wired.com)

submitted 1 year ago by issue0315@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12200311

Signal Finally Rolls Out Usernames, So You Can Keep Your Phone Number Private

all 21 comments

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[–] kbal@kbin.melroy.org 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Whittaker says that, for better or worse, a phone number remains a necessary requisite

Worse. It is for the worse. We sure did wait a long time for this half measure, Signal.

[+] LWD@lemm.ee 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

[deleted]

[–] kixik@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Jami doesn't require a phone number, which is p2p. Xmpp (+ Omemo) doesn't require a phone number and it's federated... I mean, if a service is willing to rid of phone numbers, it'll do totally without them.

[–] vorpuni@jlai.lu 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The challenge of having your device solve a nasty PoW that takes minutes would not deter most people: a timer once is better than evil captchas, phone numbers, etc. I don't understand why they use hCaptcha and not that.

[–] Scolding0513@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

phone numbers for spam prevention are a bandaid for a mediocre solution. the mediocre aspect being that it's totally centralized when it should at least be federated like SimpleX. SimpleX is the ultimate solution to be honest with you, it's federated, fast, extremely private and extremely secure.

[–] RandoCalrandian@kbin.social -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It’s the signal metadata that they want to keep associated with an identity

They still can fulfill government requests for who is talking to who and how often

[–] cjf@feddit.uk 7 points 1 year ago

Got proof for that last claim?

I thought their sealed sender feature was meant to prevent exactly this scenario.

[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Maybe use a VOiP for verification?

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fucking beta release . I'm not making google account to download the apk

[–] Rustmilian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Slim shady

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Signal is one of those apps that is good because it is popular and old.

However, they need to step up there game if they want to compete with other messagers.

[–] Nomad@infosec.pub 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its also the only really free messenger. Free as in freedom and no money.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Session
Briar
Simplex Chat
Jami (unproven)

[–] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use Jami daily. The pro is that it is completely decentralised: it doesn't need a server to run, all communications are over DHT. The cons is that not all messages are delivered instantly, and both sender and recipient need to be online at the same time.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Be careful as its not been audited

[–] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 0 points 1 year ago

I am not expecting security from it, just complete decentralisation.

[–] Nomad@infosec.pub 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah mainstream messenger that other people have. I personally like briar but it sucks my battery dry in houra.