Yes, this. And with WhatsApp or an dedicated app they're either directly on your phone. Or have your (personal) phone number. Which isn't great. With eMail you can just have another spam address, which more complicated with phone numbers and most people don't have a second one dedicated to spam and advertisements...
Comment on My two cent about emails servers field. Over a two decades...
hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks agoemail does still seem like the least bad way of receiving stuff from corpos though. I’d rather get emails than whatsapp messages or nonfree apps’ push notification.
hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 4 weeks ago
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 4 weeks ago
Encrypted messaging is unrelated to phone numbers. That’s an issue of using apps like WhatsApp (which I refuse to use), and a beef I have with Signal (part of why I really don’t trust them).
Apps have no need of your telephone number, not that it isn’t hard to find anyway.
hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 4 weeks ago
Of course. These all are different issues. Encrypted messaging has nothing to do with handing out my phone number to everyone.
I can't remember why I skipped SimpleX. I tried it some time ago, maybe it sucked too much battery on my old phone... Should I have another look at it? Respectively, is it any good for someone like me who already uses a Matrix messenger?
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 4 weeks ago
It’s a tough call, I don’t disagree at all with the concerns you pose.
However… Email is every bit as another data point for tracking you, and worse it’s in the clear. Every email address I’ve ever used over the years is in databases with IP addresses, timestamps, locatiin/region data, last used, associated device ID’s, etc… Plus any analysis from content that was ever done. Yahoo/Google, etc certainly know lots about the user of those addresses, even ones that aren’t their addresses.
I’d happily use an encrypted system(s). I’d simply create multiple accounts, and isolate them in different ways.
For example, my healthcare org sends nothing through email except a notification that you have some kind of update. You then log in to their system to view the info. I do wish they’d develop an app for iOS/Android, it’s a bit of a nuisance otherwise. In their defense, App dev with sensitive info isn’t their forte, so at least they aren’t opening that Pandora’s box.