I remember a time when visiting a website that opens a javacript dialog box asking for your name so the message “hi <name entered>” could be displayed was baulked at.
Why does signal want a phone number to register? Is there a better alternative?
I remember a time when visiting a website that opens a javacript dialog box asking for your name so the message “hi <name entered>” could be displayed was baulked at.
Why does signal want a phone number to register? Is there a better alternative?
Session is an alternative that does not require, or request, your phone number (or any other identifying information). Honestly, I have no idea why Signal got popular and Sessions did not. As soon as Signal asked for my phone number that set off alarm bells for me and I’ve never really trusted it since.
According to privacyguides.org, Session is listed under this message:
Link: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/real-time-communication/#additional-options
This is incredibly important. Signal is considered the “gold standard” of encrypted and private communication for a reason.
Thanks for this link but your username also makes this pretty sus. 😜
This is a privacy community lol, I think you know why people use throwaways.
privacyguides.org have been a reputable source of information, also you aren’t suppose to just click hyperlinks without hovering over it and verifying that it is a trustwothy link anyways.
Ya. It was a joke.
Isn’t Session the one with insane username strings?
Session is the one with broken security.
I don’t know that their security is “broken”. It may be, I don’t know. But also without anything that connects you to any particular message, it seems that – in itself – is a pretty good form of security.
I just don’t get why people accept Signal’s justification for requiring a phone number. They absolutely don’t need to (session proves that). It is certainly possible for them to say, “If you register without a phone number and access to your phone book then you will lose automatic discoverability by other users of Signal — meaning that you need to find another (physical) way to exchange your Signal username with your contacts”. They CAN do this. I think many users, like myself, would be fine with this tradeoff for greater anonymity. For some reason, they have steadfastly refused. The reasoning behind this refusal is what bothers me.
Yes. That was how they avoided using identifying information from their users.
So the reason Session never took off is probably because exchanging contact information is a big hassle, effectively barring users looking for convenience?
No, it had and has other problems