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this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Privacy
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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.
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Privacy: You knowing who I am but not what I'm doing
Anonymity: You knowing what I'm doing but not who I am.
How is someone having your real identity, and address, "private" ? This distinction is pointless.
My neighbor knows who I am and where I live.....next door. He does not know what I do, other than observe that I ride a John Deer around in the fields and corn comes up shortly there after. Riding a John Deer in a field is observable by all public passers by. In public we are not guaranteed an expectation of privacy. He doesn't know tho, that I run a private sex dungeon and crack still in my basement.
I'm a haxor diddling some server somewhere to gain access. The server admin can see what I'm doing and indeed would have a record of what I was up to including any associated IP addresses, but wouldn't know me from Adam's house cat if I were truly conducting my activities in an anonymous manner.
So because he knows only a limited amount, that's the distinction between private and anonymous?
Signal is not your neighbor. Signal's DB stores phone numbers and knows who you are, and who you talked to, and when. Are the people you talk to considered "public", to a US-based corporation?
It is my distinction, yes. There are many other distinctions like it, but this one is mine based on my threat model. Now, if you'd supply your definition/distinction and threat model, then I can be pedantic about it as well. Or we can accept that, since we are talking about a wide swath of users, no one real definition suites all. If you'd like a similar exercise, hit Lemmy Self Host and pose the question, 'What is self hosting? Is hosting on a VPS considered self hosting or is a home lab considered self hosting'. Report back please.
You know the part in the Signal setup where it asks you for your phone number for verification purposes? You do know Signal does not prohibit the use of temp phone numbers. You can try as many as you like until you get one to work (if you're relying on free temp phone) One phone number not giving you any joy, tap 'Wrong number' and try again, or use a paid for burner phone service such as MobileSMS.io (which is specifically recommended for Signal), Burner, Quackr.io, Temp-Number.com, or there are reports of using Google Voice, if you dare tread those waters.
As I understand the Sealed Sender protocol, it does redact or seeks to redact the metadata of 'whom you contact and who contacts you'. Since 2024, Signal has introduced usernames to reduce reliance on sharing phone numbers. You can set a username and hide your number from others, though it remains in the database for account purposes. Sooooooo....find you a temp burner phone number to use.
As I've said early on, I have no dog in this hunt. You can use Signal, Simplex, Smoke Signals, design a new enigma machine, whatever. My corn is going to grow regardless and my neighbor will still not know about my sex dungeon and crack still. LOL
I don't consider it "private", if you were to know the real identities of everyone I was talking to, and when I talked to them. I'm not telling any US corporation like signal that especially.
They know who you're in contact with, who you communicate with the most due to the phone numbers being linked to your account. On their own website they say people can add you by searching your phone number in the search bar. If your phone number was not stored, this would not even be possible. A reference (like a phone but with your number on display) would have to be used in order to confirm that your account is the one that is being searched. The reference is the phone number. It is not private. I am not the one talking about anonymity over and over you are.
From the very beginning I have been speaking on privacy. If they know your number and know who your number is in communication with they now know what you're doing (talking to person x)
Evennif it is encrypted the damn app is a worst choice than SimpleX the thing I recommended. You chumps want to argue so bad you are missing the point. PRIVACY. Like the name of the damn group you're in. Why get compromised privacy when you can get comprehensive privacy (simplex)?
Answer you are a hypebeast promoing the most popular "privacy app"
I've already covered the phone number conundrum further in this thread.
Quite laughable. Have fun storming the castle bro.
Have fun when the signal data breach gets revealed SIS
What data breach could there possibly be? Phone numbers are already public information and that's literally the only info Signal has. Oh no! My phone number that's publicly available already has been released in a "breach"!
It's already been mentioned numerous times but you're confusing privacy and anonymity.
Per Cambridge Dictionary:
Privacy: someone's right to keep their personal matters and relationships secret
Anonymity: the situation in which someone's name is not given or known:
Using Signal, even after giving them your phone number, fits the definition of privacy in that matters discussed through the app are secret to anyone outside of the sender and recipient. Even if Signal is told to hand over messages, they can't, there's nothing to access on their end. Private? Yes. Anonymous? No.