> I can't take a private messenger seriously when they require an identifier that's linked to your government-issued ID in many parts of the world.
Well that's a whole separate rabbit hole.
Governments shouldn't be requiring something as simple as a SIM card and phone number to be directly linked to a government ID. The right to privacy is a hell of a thing and the only reason a government would require this is to be able to spy on or track everyone.
There is absolutely no way you can connect to the Internet in Switzerland without a chain of custody of your identity. And in Germany you need to show your ID card or passport to obtain a phone number. Your phone number is required for SMS verification even for free in-store wifi in shopping centers and grocery stores. There is no exception to this except for some rare routers managed by people who accidentally left their router unsecured.
I have to say, Germany doesn't surprise me too much there. The culture in general is in favor of strict rule of law and heavy regulation. I don't mean that disparagingly at all to be clear, that isn't my cup of tea but I don't live there and really don't mind at all how another culture or society prefers to run things.
Switzerland surprises me a bit there though. Presumably the people approved that, I had a Swiss friend while living in the Netherlands and was surprised by how frequently they vote on seemingly minor regulations. I very much appreciate it honestly, both as a much more democratic system and as a way of making sure the government is both slower moving and checked by the people. I have to assume the Swiss voted to allow such a regulation, curious if you know more about how that was actually legislated though.
It’s true that governments shouldn’t require ID to be linked to phone numbers, but in much of the world (likely most of the world’s population), they do.
I guess I'm just not sure where that path of thought is supposed to lead. Sure we can recognize that many countries require this today, but we don't have to accept it.
If we stop caring as soon as enough governments grab more power they'll just keep doing it. We don't have to overthrow the government for something as simple as ID requirements for a SIM card, we just need to stop using them when we don't accept the premise.
Yeah, I assume that part of rejecting that would include not utilizing a chat service that requires one’s account to be tied to their government ID (phone number).
Right. Cell phones have become pervasive in many societies and it is expected that everyone has one st this point, but we can actually survive without them.
Granted that can be harder in some countries that, for example, use phones to pay for everything and don't use cash. That's just another example where people could have refused though, we can still survive without it even if life becomes less convenient.
You're right but it's Signal's mission to provide private messaging in the face of government overreach.
Even if they have a good reason for the paywall, it's so bizarre that they don't ask for $2-$5 donation via their own cryptocurrency MobileCoin as an alternative to providing a phone number.
Well that's a whole separate rabbit hole.
Governments shouldn't be requiring something as simple as a SIM card and phone number to be directly linked to a government ID. The right to privacy is a hell of a thing and the only reason a government would require this is to be able to spy on or track everyone.