194
Why does Signal want a phone number to register if it's supposedly privacy first? (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
275 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I remember a time when visiting a website that opens a javacript dialog box asking for your name so the message "hi " could be displayed was baulked at.

Why does signal want a phone number to register? Is there a better alternative?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] -1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

To truly be safe from Signal’s influence you would need to audit the source code and build it yourself.

Usually I only install APK's from F-Droid, which always builds its apps from source, rather than using the developer's APK. I'm uncomfortable that Signal doesn't seem to be on F-droid, and I'm in fact hesitant to install it from anywhere else. I'm not currently set up to build Android apps myself. I'm a fairly unsophisticated Android user.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Signal on Android has had reproducible builds for years now.

    Sources: Github Readme, Official blog post

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Thanks. I'm not a sophisticated Android user and so far have just stayed with installing stuff from F-droid. If the official build matches the F-droid build, that's great. At some point I want to spend some time bringing up Android build tools, but I have too much other stuff going on right now.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I just checked and I installed Signal from F-Droid.

    It says Repository: Guardian Project on the app page.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Interesting, I wonder why it's not in the main F-droid repo. Thanks.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Tons of stuff are not on fdroid due to requirements by fdroid, a longer process to push releases, etc...

    It works for many apps, but there is IzzyOnDroid for much faster releases as well as dozens of fdroid repos for specific projects by default available on NeoStore.

    I am not experienced enough to know the ins and outs of why fdroid is so difficult and slow for some devs, but it has been someone limited in apps at times because of it.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •