Comment on Using Signal groups for activism

Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• blah3166@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Signal defaults to hiding your phone number since the release of user names: https://signal.org/blog/phone-number-privacy-usernames/

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  • namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    But they must still have your phone number and associate it with your username. So it would still be easy for a government organization to force Signal to give up the identities of all people who join a group.

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    • ouch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Wrong. Signal servers don’t know of group members.

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      • namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Really? That’s interesting. But the group membership list must be persisted somewhere, no? Otherwise, you wouldn’t know where to send and receive messages. So where is it persisted then?

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    • teolan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      They can’t get your username from your phone number (but they can b’get your phone number from your username)

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  • Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Not worried about my phone number, I’m more worried about my profile.

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    • blah3166@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Your profile, like everything else on Signal, is also end-to-end encrypted. Your name and profile picture do get shared with whoever you chat with, groups or individuals. If you don't want your name and profile picture shared with randos, either don't set them or don't chat with randos.

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      • Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        like everything else on Signal, is also end-to-end encrypted

        That’s fine if one of those ends isn’t a public activism group.

        If you don’t want your name and profile picture shared with randos, either don’t set them

        I use Signal to talk to people in real life, both personally and professionally. I don’t want to message them from some sort of unidentifiable alias.

        or don’t chat with randos.

        That was my point, thank you.

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• merde@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  settings > privacy > phone number > who can see my number > nobody

  👍

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  • Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Not worried about my phone number so much as my birth name…

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    • dracs@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      No requirement to have your legal name in Signal. Though, I do wish it was possible to set a different name for group chats though. Happy to use my real name with friends and family, but would prefer an alias for group chats.

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      • Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Happy to use my real name with friends and family, but would prefer an alias for group chats.

        Exactly.

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    • MagicShel@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Maybe I’m just weird, but basically nothing I do in an online capacity traces back to my IRL identity. (I do maintain a linked in for professional purposes.)

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• Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I haven’t used the groups, but I know you CAN opt to use usernames now.

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  • Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    My username is my name.

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    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I mean, if you’re using your name as your username, you can’t really complain that Signal doesn’t let you be private. That’s on you.

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      • Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        1. No, that’s not me. Signal should let me join groups without my username (this is what SimpleX does)

        2. The point is not to blame Signal, the point is to highlight that it’s not safe to join these groups with Signal for this reason, unless you use it exclusively for this purpose, which is also not good, because then it means you’re not using it for your private/personal communications.

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