I really don’t get why so many people are turning this into a privacy versus anonymity debate when the real problem is censorship.

Yes, Signal needs a phone number to sign up, but replacing that with an email or username doesn’t make it anonymous. The real issue is that governments are blocking the registration SMS, so people can’t even sign up for the app in the first place.

Sure, there are workarounds, but most people aren’t going to jump through all those extra hoops just to use an app. If we want to spread privacy, how do we do that when Signal’s phone number requirement is actively working against us?

Instead of arguing over privacy versus anonymity, shouldn’t we focus on making sure everyone can access Signal without issues? What do you think?

  • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
    147·
    1 day ago

    shouldn’t we focus on making sure everyone can access Signal without issues?

    I’d rather ppl not use US-based centralized services, hosted on amazon’s servers, and subject to national security letters.

    There are far better self-hostable alternatives that aren’t hosted in burgerland.

    • typhoon@lemmy.world
      31·
      12 hours ago

      Not opposed to the overall message but for the national security letter it worth remind people that the communication is E2EE, before propagating some certain level of panic.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
        2·
        7 hours ago

        Even with full e2ee, they still have

        • Your real identity (via phone numbers)
        • The real identities of everyone you talk to
        • Who you messaged, and when

        With this its easy to build social networking graphs, and tag everyone implicated with a targeted account as an accomplice. Reading and trying to build meaning from the e2ee message content is almost less important than social graphs.

    • WalnutLum@lemmy.ml
      4·
      1 day ago

      I know of matrix, what are some other alternatives?

      Also a protocol that got falsely maligned during the crypto days was secure scuttlebutt, and people should be talking about it more.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
        72·
        1 day ago

        Matrix, SimpleX, Briar(not a huge fan of this one since its android only), XMPP (only if you have encryption addon).

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
        31·
        23 hours ago

        They went a whole year without publishing updates to repo a few years back, until there was a big community backlash over it. Also you have no guarantee that’s what they’re running other than: “just trust us”.

        • Autonomous User@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          34·
          23 hours ago

          What is this slop? Libre software has never meant we control what other people do with their servers.