this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12200311

Signal Finally Rolls Out Usernames, So You Can Keep Your Phone Number Private

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (11 children)

Whittaker says that, for better or worse, a phone number remains a necessary requisite

Worse. It is for the worse. We sure did wait a long time for this half measure, Signal.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (9 children)

Is there a reasonable alternative, though? Email addresses? Adding a cryptographic challenge to prevent somebody from generating tons of accounts?

As far as phone numbers go, I'm not a big fan of Signal having them, but I definitely prefer not having to give them out! That change is a huge deal to me, as I can now communicate with people without handing them a phone number. And Signal has provided their client and server source code, along with evidence that their servers store absolutely nothing.

Nowadays, the most likely way your Signal data will get leaked is if somebody screenshots it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Jami doesn't require a phone number, which is p2p. Xmpp (+ Omemo) doesn't require a phone number and it's federated... I mean, if a service is willing to rid of phone numbers, it'll do totally without them.

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