Keep your phone number private with Signal usernames

DeletedUser242

https://signal.org/blog/phone-number-privacy-usernames/

DeletedUser115

DeletedUser242 I think it's a big step in the right direction for privacy. I'd rather prefer not to use phone numbers at all, but still a great development.

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Unfortunelly a phone number is still needed to create the account.

Croak3114

cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd People keep saying this but it does not matter.

Its only used as an anti-spam measure and with this feature you are also able to turn off discovery by phone number completely. Not to mention you can just register any throwaway / rental number since you are able to set a PIN-lock for re-registering the phone number itself on Signal.

DeletedUser115

Croak3114 Not to mention you can just register any throwaway / rental number since you are able to set a PIN-lock for re-registering the phone number itself on Signal.

Not really, the PIN only prevents from re registering with same phone number for 7 days.

brn

DeletedUser115 Not really, the PIN only prevents from re registering with same phone number for 7 days.

Where is that stated? I believe I've always been asked for my PIN when changing phones, and it's been years between those. Or is that because I've transferred the account?

DeletedUser115

brn Where is that stated?

https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059792-Signal-PIN

Croak3114

DeletedUser115 Yea ok that's not optimal.

A redeeming quality how ever is that it does remove all associated account information if you do trigger the 7-day wait period. So someone trying to recover / login to your account would not be able to see either messages or past contacts.

Not to mention that any contacts that you have verified will receive a warning message when a new device signs in. And if were to just ignore that. It would more or less falls into the human error category and isn't a fault with the Signal service itself.

brn

DeletedUser115 Thanks!

Registration Lock expires after 7 days of inactivity.

So as long as one doesn't stop using Signal for 7 days, the PIN will be required. Sounds like it should be a much larger number of days indeed, but I'm sure there's a valid reason for it to be so short, probably around customer support issues.

N1b

Exactly, it's a great step and from all popular messengers Signal is still the most private one. What bugs me a bit is that people who opt for only using VOIP numbers (and there are many good reasons for such threat model) are left behind. They will need to jump through some hoops to get Signal running (like buying an anonymous SIM e.g. from silent.link, register this SIM card to a device, sharing device identifiers to the network etc.). And then they need to make sure to either maintain that number (by paying money) or be attentive to change it within 7 days if somebody else tries to register it. But at least they won't have to forward their number anymore to people who share it with Facebook, Google, Apple etc.

DeletedUser242

Phone number privacy and usernames are now rolling out to everyone using Signal version 7.0! Update your app to take advantage of these new features.

https://mastodon.world/@signalapp/112044532812423203