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

  • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    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
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      11 hours ago

      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.