this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
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Privacy

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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.

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[–] liop7k@lemm.ee 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What kind of private communication can we talk about if you must have a valid phone number to use Signal?! Lol

[–] danhab99@programming.dev 13 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Signal recently implemented "usernames" instead of phone numbers

[–] girlthing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Pretty sure you still need a phone number for an account, though - the usernames are just for sharing your contact with other people.

Most peoples' phone numbers are easily linked to their identity. Which means the government knows who's using Signal.

Usernames are definitely an improvement, but this is a fundamental limitation in Signal's design.

[–] danhab99@programming.dev 1 points 5 days ago

Then I'd delete my old phone number account and start fresh.. not exactly the best option but all things considered you might have too

[–] liop7k@lemm.ee 14 points 5 days ago

But still, to use it, you need a phone number, which in many countries can only be purchased with a passport. That's the main rule. If privacy is really needed, personal identification should be excluded so that it's basically impossible to determine who owns the account.

[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 2 points 5 days ago