Privacy

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Why does Signal want a phone number to register if it's supposedly privacy first? (programming.dev)

submitted 22 hours ago by 0101100101@programming.dev to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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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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[–] solrize@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Are you saying I have to literally rebuild and distribute my own client APK if I want to use my own server? There's no "settings" in the existing client where you say what server you want to use, like every email client has? That sounds obnoxious.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 14 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

If you don't trust Signal to run an unmodified server without malicious modifications, then why would you trust their build of the APK?

To truly be safe from Signal's influence you would need to audit the source code and build it yourself.

Personally I have no problem using Signal's servers

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

To truly be safe from Signal’s influence you would need to audit the source code and build it yourself.

Usually I only install APK's from F-Droid, which always builds its apps from source, rather than using the developer's APK. I'm uncomfortable that Signal doesn't seem to be on F-droid, and I'm in fact hesitant to install it from anywhere else. I'm not currently set up to build Android apps myself. I'm a fairly unsophisticated Android user.

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 1 points 38 minutes ago

I just checked and I installed Signal from F-Droid.

It says Repository: Guardian Project on the app page.

[–] bent@lemm.ee 3 points 8 hours ago

You can use Obtainium and get it straight from Github.