196
Why does Signal want a phone number to register if it's supposedly privacy first? (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
277 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[+] [S] -22 points 1 year ago* (1 child)
  1. yawn, vpns are a thing and strawman argument. point?
  2. my number is private. point?
  3. bs. spam is easy to detect across a large number of accounts using simpleheuristics. point?
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)
    1. they were talking of something like year 2003, when they were commonly not.
    2. no, PSTN is not private.
    3. for something end-to-end encrypted, including message metadata (not connection metadata), this statement seems amazingly stupid ; "simple heuristics" are usually used on something like plaintext e-mail.
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] [S] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)
    1. no they weren't. no moving of goalposts
    2. what's my number then?
    3. amazingly not stupid. dunning kruger and all that.
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago
    1. People were complaining about JS existing when SSL and TLS were not omniscious. If we disagree on that fact, move on.
    2. A sequence of digits.
    3. OK, what are your "simple heuristics" for a bunch of pieces of ciphertext with unknown sender (except for IP addresses) in your storage to pick spammers from that?
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent