Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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

submitted 1 day 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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[–] Maverick604@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (11 children)

Session is an alternative that does not require, or request, your phone number (or any other identifying information). Honestly, I have no idea why Signal got popular and Sessions did not. As soon as Signal asked for my phone number that set off alarm bells for me and I’ve never really trusted it since.

[–] throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

According to privacyguides.org, Session is listed under this message:

These messengers do not have forward secrecy, and while they fulfill certain needs that our previous recommendations may not, we do not recommend them for long-term or sensitive communications. Any key compromise among message recipients would affect the confidentiality of all past communications.

Link: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/real-time-communication/#additional-options

[–] Maverick604@lemmy.ca -1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for this link but your username also makes this pretty sus. 😜

[–] throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

This is a privacy community lol, I think you know why people use throwaways.

privacyguides.org have been a reputable source of information, also you aren't suppose to just click hyperlinks without hovering over it and verifying that it is a trustwothy link anyways.

[–] Maverick604@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

Ya. It was a joke.

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