The third new feature, which is not enabled by default and which Signal primarily recommends for high-risk users, allows you to turn off not only the visibility of your number, but also its discoverability. That means no one can find you on his Signal unless he knows your username, even if he already has your number or has it saved in his address book. This extra protection can be important if you don't want your Signal profile to be associated with your phone number, but it also makes it very difficult for someone who knows you to find you on her Signal. Masu.
New phone number protections allow you to use Signal to communicate with people you don't trust in ways that would have previously posed significant privacy risks. A reporter can now post her Signal username on her social media profile, allowing her source to encrypt her information without having to share a number that, for example, a stranger can call her cell phone in the middle of the night. You will be able to send your own tips. Activists can discreetly join organized groups without giving out their personal number to people in the group they don't know.
Previously, to use Signal without exposing your personal number in either situation, you had to set up a new Signal number on your burner phone. This poses a difficult privacy challenge for people in many countries where ID is required to purchase a SIM card. Services like Google Voice. Instead, you can now simply set a username and change or delete it at any time. (Conversations started with the old username will switch to the new username.) To avoid storing these usernames as well, Signal also uses an encryption feature called Ristretto hashing, which instead stores unique characters. You can save a list of columns. Number of characters to encode these handles.
Even with these new features designed to fine-tune exactly who can see your phone number, one important role of that number remains the same. That said, there's still no way to avoid sharing your phone number with Signal itself during registration. The fact that this requirement remains after Signal's upgrade is sure to anger some critics who have been demanding that Signal's developers do a better job of accommodating users who want more complete anonymity. Probably. This is to ensure that even Signal staff cannot see phone numbers that could potentially identify you or an individual. The numbers will be handed over to a watchdog agency that enforces the court order.
Whittaker said that for better or worse, a phone number remains a mandatory requirement as an identifier that Signal privately collects from its users. Part of the reason is to prevent spammers from creating endless accounts due to the scarcity of phone numbers. With Phone Number, anyone can install his Signal and instantly enter contacts in their address book. This is an important factor for ease of use.
In fact, design a system to prevent spam accounts and import users' address books without it Requesting a phone number is “a deceptively difficult problem,” Whitaker said. “Spam prevention and whether you can actually connect with your social graph in communication apps, these are existential concerns,” she says. “That's why you still need a phone number for registration. Because you still need something to make it work.”