Privacy

789 readers

36 users here now

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.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

195

Signal leaked random contacts to me! (feddit.de)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by ErKaf@feddit.de to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

58 comments fedilink hide all child comments

When I press on some message to forward it, it shows me Random usernames of contacts I don't know. And it even shows some Mobile Numbers I don't know. For example, one number starts with +964 that's Iraq. I'm from Europe tho. These contacts and numbers are from all over the place.

Edit: This only happens on Signal Desktop. If I try to forward a message on Android it only shows my Contacts. And none of these unkown ones.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Templa 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why did someone see that I joined Signal? People who already know your number and already have you in their contacts see that they can contact you on Signal. Nothing is sent to them by your Signal app or the Signal service. They just see a number they know is registered. If someone knows how to send you an insecure SMS, we want them to see that they can send you a Signal message instead.

Why did I see that my contact joined Signal? You are notified when someone that is stored in your contact list is a new Signal user. If you can send an insecure SMS to a contact, we want you to know you can send a Signal message instead.

I hate this.

[–] ReversalHatchery 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So Signal does not protect against those that fill their contacts with every existing number?

But also, this does not explain why is it only happening in the desktop app for OP

[–] qwerty_bastard@feddit.uk 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Protect against what? People knowing you have Signal? Excuse me if it's obvious to everyone else, but I'm struggling to understand the issue here.

[–] aintnofilthybot@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It confirms that your number is valid and in use.

[–] Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You can check that in the phone app too. Hit new message, enter the numer, hit "New message to... " and it'll tell you if it isn't known. There is rate limiting in that function, you'd need a lot of signal accounts to sweep all phone numbers.
You could also try signing up to signal using the number you want to check.

Neither way however you would get the signal name or profile pic of the number if I understand it correctly, that would get sent if they reply to you.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] Xer0@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, ever heard of a phonebook?

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] ReversalHatchery 1 points 1 year ago

People knowing you have Signal?

Did you read my comment before replying this?

People who install signal and then add all possible phone numbers to their phone book, e.g. to find out which of them is a signal user

load more comments (2 replies)