[aaravchen]

Ironically, Signal actually ranks a -1 for privacy in this use. Presumably you're already using Signal and getting mainstream contacts to start using it too. You probably have a basic profile that at least includes your real name, and might also have your picture. Maybe you're even one of the 7 people in the world that use the Stories feature in it. Well good news, now all of that is also unconditionally available to anyone in any group you ever join, including any future changes you ever make to that info, unrevocably forever into the future.

Signal has a fun dark pattern where it unrevocably grants permissions for anyone you allow to contact you to see everything in your profile for the rest of time. It has only a single trust level with contacts effectively: full trust. This is unacceptable in any tool you use for online community, unless you exclusively use it for online community and can decline to provide any info in this full-trust level. Unfortunately Signal also makes very sure you can't have a second account, by tying your account to a phone number, and only allowing one Signal instance per mobile device.

Is Signal good? Yes, but only exclusively for communication with people you already trust.

EDIT: typos

[raxxorraxor]

I dislike Signal as I need to identify myself through info that is protected. Like a phone number for example.

Not a privacy app in my opinion. Sure, might be good for some use cases... but overall there are better solutions.

[cykros]

Keep an eye on Whitenoise. It's basically taken the technology behind Signal and placed it atop Nostr, so rather than signing up with a phone number, you do it with an npub (pubkey). Still in very early days so the features aren't all there yet, and battery use could be better, but they've got the basics of it working already.

[a3w]

Completely not my experience:

I have lots of Signal contacts I cannot phone, since the phone number is never shared by default. Not even the signal contact is shareable. It is way too privacy focused to work easily.

i.e. I cannot even match two people I have in contacts unless one of them sends me their hidden username. Then they can talk to one another.

And people in my contacts don't use their full name. In groups, they often share the first name, making it confusing as hell. And many use an arbitrary nickname, most often the abbreviated first name I think but sometimes truly random stuff, and might even change that yearly with no mapping in my history to tell me who they were.

[aaravchen]

Signal has had the ability to share a username instead of phone number for a while. You definitely want to pair that with not sharing your phone number with Signal contacts (the related option released at the same time).

[lukan]

"but overall there are better solutions."

Can you please name some?

[Gud]

Why the downvotes? A messaging app that requires a personally identifiable token is inherently not good for privacy…

[derkades]

The part about stories is not true. When sending a story you can choose who to send it to. To make it easier you can even put people in groups

[ozlikethewizard]

You can have multiple instances of signal on a mobile device, and you can use VoiP or eSIMs to register. Signal with an online persona revealing no identifying information, registered to a cash purchased eSIM on an ungoogled android is as good as your getting. Why do you think so many jurisdictions are trying to ban both GrapheneOS and Signal.

[kenniskrag]

In europe you need identification to buy a sim or esim.

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/9ziqfi/european_cou...

[dns_snek]

You can do all of that but you shouldn't have to when using a privacy-focused messenger, and most people won't so they'll be exposed and suffer the consequences if they use Signal expecting a certain level of privacy (and pseudo-anonymity).

It's a terrible anti-feature and the only reason they're not being punished for it is because there aren't many alternatives to pick from.

[aaravchen]

You could have a second actuve eSIM if you have a phone that supports more than one (no phones support more than 2 active simultaneously). Though technically the phone number only needs to be accessible for the initial account setup so I guess you could have a burner phone you switch out eSIMs on. Each Signal application only supports a single account though. So you can have one, and if you have a work profile you're not otherwise using you could have a second account in that instance.With the new Private Spaces you could potentially have a third as well.

So you _may_ be able to have up to 3 simultaneous Signal accounts on the same device.

I'm using my work profile and Private Space for things I can't share a Signal install with though. And I dont want to buy and maintain an extra phone number from a telco just to have another Signal profile.

[ekianjo]

Of course it's revealing information. If I know that two users that are identified by their phone numbers are talking to each other every day, this is a clear connection you can exploit. Metadata is only useless if you have no imagination.

[OJFord]

That's privacy for someone who cares deeply and will get it somehow no matter what, not default zero-effort privacy for the ignorant. (Which WhatsApp does pretty well for example.)

[pyb]

How could Signal be considered privacy-conscious ? The first thing they do is ask for your phone number.

[neobrain]

Signal has profiles nowadays that can be used to connect with people without sharing phone numbers. The latter are only used for signup and discarded immediately after.

[direwolf20]

WhatsApp sends a copy of all your messages to ICE. Signal doesn't.

[akimbostrawman]

because privacy != anonymity e.g you have privacy in your home but everbody still knows you live there.

[DivingForGold]

Give Signal a burner phone.

[zikduruqe]

No they don't.

They ask _for_ a phone number. It doesn't have to be yours.

[alt187]

Because they have an huge PR campaign and a lot of money to invest in keeping their place.

[gsaslis]

I didn't think I'd ever be part of any group of 7 people in the world, but today is that day, I guess.

And I know one more of those people already!

5 more to go.

[fsflover]

> Ironically, Signal actually ranks a -1 for privacy in this use

And it ranks near Discord in terms of removing the single point of failure.