Signal / Telegram "we respect your privacy"
Also Signal / Telegram "yeah look that person whose number is in your phone but you haven't talked to in 5 years just joined S/T".
Well. Hum. ๐ค
Yes I know you can disable those notifications. But I still think other people get notified when you joined. Which is super creepy because you might not want everyone who ever had access to your number to be able to contact you again, even if you removed or blocked them elsewhere
This is why I really hate that those messengers require a phone number and wish you could log with something else (like a garbage email you only use for that purpose, msn I miss you)
Also all privacy options are on "everyone" by default. Which is again, meh, pff.
I am sure those people are full of good intentions and I like having alternatives to whatapps and all. But I wish people who talk about privacy would have some kind of a privacy by default policy or privacy first approach to their product first use or something?
Talk to anyone who was harassed at some point & you'll get why this whole "let's notify people that you are using our product" can be bad.
I know a lot of people who keep their harrassers number under "x asshole" in their phone just to be able to block them on other tools.
I have mixed feelings on all of this, but I agree that it really ought to not do that by default.
The ProTip[tm] I read sometime back was to:
1. Buy a prepaid SIM.
2. Put it in your phone.
3. Activate Signal with it.
4. Remove the SIM and put it in an envelope somewhere in case you need it again.
5. Put your real SIM
And now, Signal will work but not be tied to your actual phone number.
So there's a workaround, anyway. (Assuming a subsequent Signal update hasn't broken this.)
What if you set a reminder and every couple of months put it back in and send a couple of texts? Presumably youโd have to occasionally put in more money, granted.
@suetanvil @stephaniewalter every prepaid sim iโve used expires with a year of inactivity. super frustrating.