zlacker

>>pera+(OP)
The biggest drawback with Signal for protesters is that it exposes the user's phone number to everyone else in groups (just like WhatsApp does). There is no way to even hide the fact that you have an account on Signal. I can add phone numbers by enumeration into my contacts and Signal will show who among my contacts is on it. If the authorities don't use tactics like they did in Hong Kong, the protesters may be safe from being spied on (or worse).

>>AnonC+ul
Signal is not only used by protesters[0][1] so discovering that a phone number is connected to a Signal account by no means implies that the phone is used by a protester.

[0]: https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2020/01/23/deploye...

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/17/tories-swit...

>>hjek+7m
The point made by the parent commenter was that you can join any group (if you get someone to invite you) related to a certain topic and get the phone numbers of everyone in that group.

I am not sure about the situation in the US, but in Europe almost all phone numbers are directly linked to a certain person and address by the provider.