this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2022
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Privacy
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they're both garbage because they exclusively use telephone numbers.
phone numbers are a hassle to get, so most people don't have more than one - which is the the first thing someone needs to steal your identity, and the only thing necessary to track your location (for anyone with access to the tools). you should never publish the phone number that you use for 2fa. if you're concerned about privacy and carry a phone, you shouldn't reveal the number of the SIM in the phone you carry to people you don't trust.
signal and telegram require that you share a phone number with anyone you want to communicate with. this hasn't made any sense since around the time signal was called "textsecure" and actually used SMS as a transport.
tldr: they're both garbage.
The phone number is used only for registration by Signal. It's not used as a ID for registration.
requiring one just for registration would still make it garbage, but, last I checked it was also the only identifier. did they add usernames recently or something? searching for a minute I don't see anything like that.