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Whats the purpose for usernames on signal?
(lemmy.today)
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this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024
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Privacy
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Remember that "average Joe" is not actually signals only focus, it's average journalist/ whistleblower/protestor living under a hostile government that may target them and their associates for what the rest of us "average joes" might consider basic free speech.
So a scenario might be, people use signal in Iran to arrange a mass protest on a specific day, word gets out and some of the organizers are arrested and pressured to give up their companions... They cooperate by unlocking phones, but police have no idea who the lead organizer "RndoUsr.40" is and the people arrested never met face to face so no amount of pressure would get them the organizers real ID
And yeah, for us average joes it's good for aquaintences and because names are easier to remember so it's handy.
Well yeah can't protect against stupidity I suppose
Another scenario, you are a us citizen and they lock you in for exposing your fascist country's war crimes
FWIW if Signal did cooperate with law enforcement for any reason, they could be given the RndoUsr.40 account name and return a phone number, as long as that user was still rocking the username by the time they started looking... Or, I suppose, if Signal servers log those histories somehow.
Importantly, though, phone numbers cannot be queried for usernames. The data returned from a phone number will be the same as seen on previous FOIA requests.
From their blog (hard to find because it's hidden behind ellipsis):
If that is the threat model then Signal is not and never was fit for purpose at all.
Because every time I've complained about not wanting to give my phone number to sign up for Signal I've been lectured about how Signal is "all about privacy, not anonymity and those are not the same thing" and how that is good for the average Joe even if it isn't useful for journalists and activists, and what you're saying goes completely against that by suggesting that the police are somehow unable to get the phone number out of the thing that uses the phone number as the user id.
You're describing how a real privacy-focused app like Briar functions, but definitely not how Signal does.
They can't get a phone number from someone if only a username was shared with that person. maybe the people who lectured you about it not also being for anonymity where not aware of plans to ad usernames or that a projects aims and use cases can change over time but signal can and has already been useful to a good number of journalists, not requiring a phone number to share your contact with someone is what id consider a major game changer in terms of what use cases are now open and threat models that can be accounted for.