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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
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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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[–] [S] -5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

huh? so the phone number is encrypted in a way that can't be read, but an sms is sent to the phone? ... a separate company sends the text on behalf of signal? so that separate company logs the phone number, the timestamp and who knows what else.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    Signal doesn't use SMS anymore, and all messages are sent over encrypted Internet protocol. Any servers in between won't see the phone number, it's not needed to deliver the message, it's using an IP address at that point and the entire message metadata is encrypted. Signal is the only one that can see the phone numbers, which they use to identify multiple clients as a single user and route messages accordingly.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Signal doesn't use SMS at all, once you have enrolled. The phone number is used to validate people and exclude bots, during registration. As others have noted, you can hide your number from other users, as well.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago

    What are you on about right now? I don't mean that sarcastically, I really am wondering what your concern is. Are you concerned that because your phone number is associated with Signal that police will know you use Signal?

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