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.

>>soziaw+at
> The point

One of the points which, yes, I agree with, but I mainly responded to this:

> I can add phone numbers by enumeration into my contacts and Signal will show who among my contacts is on it.\

> 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.

Or you can go to a corner shop and buy a Lyca or Lebara SIM with cash. No need to give them your address. You can buy top ups in cash as well. At least in Western Europe this is available everywhere, pretty much.

(I'd still prefer if Signal didn't require phone number to sign up though.)

>>hjek+RL
> Or you can go to a corner shop and buy a Lyca or Lebara SIM with cash.

Which is still a stable identifier that other people know you by, so you will likely keep it a long time and amass a trail of location data. Also its trivial to tie to the IMEI, so if you actually want to change nyms you have to buy a new phone as well.

Everything about the legacy phone system is a liability. Contact discovery is difficult, but tying into phone numbers should be optional and only for the duration of setting up a contact. Using phone numbers for long-lived identifiers is insane.