this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Privacy

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If it ask for your phone number its not private. (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 days ago by lunatique@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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Nowadays, a majority of apps require you to sign up with your email or even worse your phone number. If you have a phone number attached to your name, meaning you went to a cell service/phone provider, and you gave them your ID, then no matter what app you use, no matter how private it says it is, it is not private. There is NO exception to this. Your identity is instantly tied to that account.

Signal is not private. I recommend Simplex or another peer to peer onion messaging app. They don't require email or phone number. So as long as you protect your IP you are anonymous

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[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

How is someone having your real identity, and address, "private" ? This distinction is pointless.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 9 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

  • My neighbor knows who I am and where I live.....next door. He does not know what I do, other than observe that I ride a John Deer around in the fields and corn comes up shortly there after. Riding a John Deer in a field is observable by all public passers by. In public we are not guaranteed an expectation of privacy. He doesn't know tho, that I run a private sex dungeon and crack still in my basement.

  • I'm a haxor diddling some server somewhere to gain access. The server admin can see what I'm doing and indeed would have a record of what I was up to including any associated IP addresses, but wouldn't know me from Adam's house cat if I were truly conducting my activities in an anonymous manner.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

He does not know what I do, other than observe that I ride a John Deer around in the fields and corn comes up shortly there after. Riding a John Deer in a field is observable by all public passers by.

So because he knows only a limited amount, that's the distinction between private and anonymous?

Signal is not your neighbor. Signal's DB stores phone numbers and knows who you are, and who you talked to, and when. Are the people you talk to considered "public", to a US-based corporation?

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

So because he knows only a limited amount, that’s the distinction between private and anonymous?

It is my distinction, yes. There are many other distinctions like it, but this one is mine based on my threat model. Now, if you'd supply your definition/distinction and threat model, then I can be pedantic about it as well. Or we can accept that, since we are talking about a wide swath of users, no one real definition suites all. If you'd like a similar exercise, hit Lemmy Self Host and pose the question, 'What is self hosting? Is hosting on a VPS considered self hosting or is a home lab considered self hosting'. Report back please.

Signal is not your neighbor. Signal’s DB stores phone numbers and knows who you are, and who you talked to, and when

You know the part in the Signal setup where it asks you for your phone number for verification purposes? You do know Signal does not prohibit the use of temp phone numbers. You can try as many as you like until you get one to work (if you're relying on free temp phone) One phone number not giving you any joy, tap 'Wrong number' and try again, or use a paid for burner phone service such as MobileSMS.io (which is specifically recommended for Signal), Burner, Quackr.io, Temp-Number.com, or there are reports of using Google Voice, if you dare tread those waters.

As clients upgrade, messages will automatically be delivered using sealed sender whenever possible. Users can enable an optional status icon that will be displayed in the detailed information view for a message to indicate when this happens. These protocol changes are an incremental step, and we are continuing to work on improvements to Signal’s metadata resistance. In particular, additional resistance to traffic correlation via timing attacks and IP addresses are areas of ongoing development. https://signal.org/blog/sealed-sender

As I understand the Sealed Sender protocol, it does redact or seeks to redact the metadata of 'whom you contact and who contacts you'. Since 2024, Signal has introduced usernames to reduce reliance on sharing phone numbers. You can set a username and hide your number from others, though it remains in the database for account purposes. Sooooooo....find you a temp burner phone number to use.

As I've said early on, I have no dog in this hunt. You can use Signal, Simplex, Smoke Signals, design a new enigma machine, whatever. My corn is going to grow regardless and my neighbor will still not know about my sex dungeon and crack still. LOL