Technology

59300 readers

4713 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

106

'Signal tests usernames to avoid using phone numbers.' Great move? (cybernews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by woshang@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It seems useless to me, at least regarding the cybersecurity aspect. Of course, it's helpful when people ask for my contact information, and I don't want to share my phone number or email address.

But they still require information that could be used to prove or be linked to my identity for registration, right? This means a hacker could still reveal your IP address, phone number, email, and your passcode. Likewise, the development team can access these as well.

I know I'm overly cautious about my privacy, but that's just how I am.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] DV8@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seems I'm in the minority but having to use my phone number as identier is exactly why I don't use apps like this, including WhatsApp. I don't care if my username gets shared, but I do not want my phone number to be shared with a bunch of randoms.

[–] nix@midwest.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Would you be more likely to use Signal if the username tests become mainstream? Then you wouldn't need to share your phone # with everyone.

[–] DV8@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

As in use phone number to sign up but only share unique username. I'd still dislike having to use a phone number but being able to use such an app with family would be enough of a plus to finally get over it.