Re:Military seizes control in Myanmar
by goatsi on Monday February 01, 2021 @01:34AM
(#25986197)
Using phone numbers as identifiers for encrypted messages is the core feature of Signal. It was marketed from day one as a drop in SMS replacement. Initially it even used SMS as the transport for encrypted messages. It was literally called "TextSecure". This is why I have always found the attacks on it using phone numbers to be amusing.
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Re:Military seizes control in Myanmar
by Mediterraneo10 on Monday February 01, 2021 @02:17AM
(#25986390)
The problem is that in the years since Signal was launched like that, more and more countries around the world are requiring you to show ID to buy a SIM card, and then a copy of that ID is made and sent on to the authorities. So, the state has a one-to-one correlation between phone numbers and individuals, and so it can see who is using Signal.
So? Signal is just a messaging client. The goal of Signal is to get it widely used by as many people as possible, so that it's a totally normal thing to have on your phone.
If a country has gotten to the point that you would be targeted just for having an app installed, just changing to usernames wouldn't be enough, as users could be easily detected through network logging (thanks AWS and Google for killing domain fronting [0]). Your usecase sounds like it needs an app like Briar.
> Signal is just a messaging client.
It's pushed as a secure messaging client, and so when it doesn't meet the standards for that people will mention it so potential users have the information needed for a risk assessment.