I don't understand the hype; how many people are chatting with people they don't know on Signal?
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
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With usernames now it would be a better option. Before you had to share your phone number and hence your name
You'd still share your name, no? As far as I understand it, these usernames only serve to get in contact, nothing more
You'd share a username, which is way different if you ask me. I don't mind sharing my username, Kusimulkku, here but I wouldn't want to share my phone number and real name.
If you use the username to get into contact then your phone number isn't visible to them iirc. Same other way around, your username isn't visible to people you've got into contact with a phone number. So no need to worry about your phone number leaking or your friends and family seeing that you also go by "MonsterCock2000" or something.
What I mean is that the username only serves to connect two users. But the profile they then see of each other is their standard Signal profile, with whatever name and other info it contains.
At least that's how I understood their blog post
I think that might be true, but you could just have your first name as your name or something less private than full name + phone number etc.
That was exactly my first thought. Might be something for various underground groups, but the normal use case seems to be just regular communication among friends & family.
I'm going to put a UN or QR code on my website for another form of tech support. (Think of WhatsApp numbers)
Telegram had this for a long time. Why is Signal always behind on privacy features?
This is a fairly easy answer. Signal refuses to take shortcuts that others are happy to use.
You may find this virtuous, but I'll argue that it isn't.
It's much better to start by having windows that don't lock than to keep holes in your walls all year while waiting for windows that are insulated, lockable and can be cleaned from the inside.
Signal leaves the holes until they finish the insulated window that also creates electricity.
I agree 100% with what you said.
Can you name some shortcuts that Telegram uses, but Signal doesn't?
Sure.
Telegram uses encryption that allows themselves to read your messages. This shortcut allows them to restore messages, outside of secret chats, when you install the app on a new device. It also makes distribution of your messages to large groups much easier for themselves.
Another shortcut Telegram took was to hide your phone number only when it wasn't in the contacts already. There are a limited number of possible phone numbers, so discovering a "hidden" one is possible.
Another shortcut Telegram took has to do with the default settings they chose.
Rather than defaulting to using secret chats, they chose to default to not secret chats for every new discussion and group. This isn't in the users' best interests, so Signal encrypted everything and doesn't offer non-secret chatting.
Regarding SMS, Signal had made this mistake for a while too, because they chose to drop encrypted SMS, then dropped SMS entirely later. Signal let perfect be the enemy of good.
Thanks. I knew they had some questionable default settings, but haven't heard (or read in, really) their encryption being entirely backdoored when needed, rather than the usual "well, better KGB than FBI can read it" conspiracy talk.
Telegram is only slightly more private than Facebook Messenger. Not only can they link a username to a phone number, but they can link a phone number to a username too.
Meanwhile, Signal did it right.
And that's before we start talking about all the problems made in Telegram, from rolling their own encryption to telling their users not to use it.
This could be a helpful thing, as I know I don't always like sharing my Phone Number with people.