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If you join a large WhatsApp group, anyone in that group will have everyone else’s phone number, and they can use that to learn far more about everyone’s identities.
Does it not give away your identity when you join a Signal group?
Signal defaults to hiding your phone number since the release of user names: https://signal.org/blog/phone-number-privacy-usernames/
Not worried about my phone number, I’m more worried about my profile.
Your profile, like everything else on Signal, is also end-to-end encrypted. Your name and profile picture do get shared with whoever you chat with, groups or individuals. If you don’t want your name and profile picture shared with randos, either don’t set them or don’t chat with randos.
like everything else on Signal, is also end-to-end encrypted
That’s fine if one of those ends isn’t a public activism group.
If you don’t want your name and profile picture shared with randos, either don’t set them
I use Signal to talk to people in real life, both personally and professionally. I don’t want to message them from some sort of unidentifiable alias.
or don’t chat with randos.
That was my point, thank you.
But they must still have your phone number and associate it with your username. So it would still be easy for a government organization to force Signal to give up the identities of all people who join a group.
Wrong. Signal servers don’t know of group members.
Really? That’s interesting. But the group membership list must be persisted somewhere, no? Otherwise, you wouldn’t know where to send and receive messages. So where is it persisted then?
And also, how would you add someone to a group? When you add a new user to a group, would he be able to view all previous messages? Is it possible for this to scale to, say, a thousand or a million users?
They can’t get your username from your phone number (but they can b’get your phone number from your username)
settings > privacy > phone number > who can see my number > nobody
👍
Not worried about my phone number so much as my legal name…
No requirement to have your legal name in Signal. Though, I do wish it was possible to set a different name for group chats though. Happy to use my real name with friends and family, but would prefer an alias for group chats.
Happy to use my real name with friends and family, but would prefer an alias for group chats.
Exactly.
Maybe I’m just weird, but basically nothing I do in an online capacity traces back to my IRL identity. (I do maintain a linked in for professional purposes.)
I haven’t used the groups, but I know you CAN opt to use usernames now.
My username is my name. As is my profile.
I mean, if you’re using your name as your username, you can’t really complain that Signal doesn’t let you be private. That’s on you.
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No, that’s not on me. Signal should let me join groups without my username (this is what SimpleX does)
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The point is not to blame Signal, the point is to highlight that it’s not safe to join these activist groups with Signal for this reason, and political action groups should not be using it for this reason, unless you use it exclusively for this purpose, which is also not good, because then it means you’re not using it for your personal communications.
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I wish Signal had an option to create forums. With forum Like ui with threads its easier to organize things and keep up with projects over long periods of time.
For those that want more security:
Simplex does not give you anymore security. It does however, provide anonymity.
Let’s stay in touch! I’m on Signal. Just text me on Telegram. I’ve got Whatsapp with ads. I’m literally on Snapchat. You can probably find me on Kik. Dude text me on Matrix. It’s a Wechat feature. I’m on Simplex. You can text me on Simplex. You can go to Simplex and text me. Log onto Simplex right now. Go to Simplex. Dive into Simplex. You can Simplex me. I’m on Simplex. Simplex has it for you. Simplex has it for you.
