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.

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

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Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
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If it ask for your phone number its not private. (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 days ago by lunatique@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Nowadays, a majority of apps require you to sign up with your email or even worse your phone number. If you have a phone number attached to your name, meaning you went to a cell service/phone provider, and you gave them your ID, then no matter what app you use, no matter how private it says it is, it is not private. There is NO exception to this. Your identity is instantly tied to that account.

Signal is not private. I recommend Simplex or another peer to peer onion messaging app. They don't require email or phone number. So as long as you protect your IP you are anonymous

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[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Signal is not open source, its a centralized US service, and you have no idea what their server is running. They even went a full year without publishing server code updates at one point, until it caused enough of a backlash that they started doing it again. But publishing that is no guarantee of anything, because you have no access to their server.

mathematically impossible for Signal to gain access to your sensitive information (except for your phone number, obviously).

A phone number in most countries, including the US, means your real name and address.

[–] Mensh123@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Signal's server is open-source. Of course, they could do something else in secret, but the openness of the client (here's the client) is enough to verify that E2EE exists.

Your phone number alone just doesn't give any real insight: you can derive that the person behind it prefers to communicate in private and that they're probably alive, but that's about it. Also, I don't think Signal can get your name without a government to look it up. That does happen sometimes, it's just that nothing importmant ever comes out of it.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 18 hours ago

Signal's server is open-source

Prove it, give me ssh access to their centralized server so I can verify that they're running the code they've published. Otherwise this is a "just trust me" claim.

Also, I don't think Signal can get your name without a government to look it up.

There are 10 websites that publicly publish phone number and identity info, right now. Not even a government, but a random stranger can convert your phone number to your real identity.