52
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by autonomoususer@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

I really don’t get why so many people are turning this into a privacy versus anonymity debate when the real problem is censorship.

Yes, Signal needs a phone number to sign up, but replacing that with an email or username doesn’t make it anonymous. The real issue is that governments are blocking the registration SMS, so people can’t even sign up for the app in the first place.

Sure, there are workarounds, but most people aren’t going to jump through all those extra hoops just to use an app. If we want to spread privacy, how do we do that when Signal's phone number requirement is actively working against us?

Instead of arguing over privacy versus anonymity, shouldn’t we focus on making sure everyone can access Signal without issues? What do you think?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 12 points 1 day ago

Where are you seeing gov blocking SMS?

[-] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

How about this - in order to get a sim card to receive that SMS in most EU countries, you need first to provide your ID to the goverment. Also applies for many other countries with less rights. Some of which might become suspicious if it's a second separate SIM to your normal use one. So yeah, so much for anonymity.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 8 points 1 day ago
  1. That didn't answer my question
  2. Doesn't matter what country you're in. You don't need a SIM. All you need is a number, which you can get from a variety of places like MySudo or jmp.chat
  3. No one said Signal provided anonymity.
[-] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

2 and 3 are the whole point of the original post.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org -3 points 21 hours ago
[-] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 3 points 13 hours ago

Sure, there are workarounds, but most people aren’t going to jump through all those extra hoops just to use an app.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 0 points 9 hours ago

Must not be important to them then.

[-] shades@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 21 hours ago

you need first to provide your ID to the goverment.

Doesn't need to be a government issued ID iirc, also doesn't have to be issued by the country you are trying to purchase it in.

[-] autonomoususer@lemmy.world -1 points 22 hours ago
[-] Ulrich@feddit.org -1 points 21 hours ago

There's any number of reasons for SMS not to be sent. I've had this problem on various platforms as well.

[-] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 0 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

The real issue is that people can't register for Signal due to blocked SMS. Arguing privacy vs. anonymity is pointless when access is the problem.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org -1 points 20 hours ago

These are 2 unrelated conversations. If you want to have either one of them, we can do that, but you can't use one to argue the other. You can't argue that you can't sign up for Signal because the service isn't private. That's simply inaccurate.

[-] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 0 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

This is never written anywhere in that comment. Is it too hard to read? Which part is confusing?

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org -1 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

You haven't provided any evidence that it's "blocked" or that there is any "denial of service". As far as I can tell, the user has network issues.

[-] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

Why are all the 'network issues' always effecting phone numbers starting with the same country code?

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org -2 points 20 hours ago
[-] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

Get a number like theirs and try it yourself.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org -1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Okay so you don't have any evidence.

[-] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

You were given the evidence. It's clear you don't want it. A VoIP number does not solve this as the original post already explains.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org -1 points 18 hours ago

You haven't provided any evidence. Only an anecdote.

this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2025
52 points (85.1% liked)

Privacy

41621 readers
664 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS