Removed by mod
it gets worse
The feature currently requires Google Play Services, as payments run through the Play Store, making it such that devices without Play Services cannot access it
I would rather give Signal my phone number than use a smartphone with Google services.
… don’t they know that as soon as you use your Google account you’re ID? Like doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose?
No, they DO know that.
The only way to communicate anonymously across the internet is Tor.
You mean they want to identify you from your credit card instead of your phone number? Bah.
They claim it’s “zero knowledge” proof through Google pay, meaning that Google will know you paid Signal, and Signal knows you paid them, but there is no link between the two that uses your PII payment info to identify the Signal account. I’m inclined to believe them.
Unless you wait a good while to use what you paid for (if that’s even possible), then I doubt it’d be hard to connect the dots. Never mind connecting transaction records.
It’s the exact same privacy protection as signing up with a phone number.
Not quite. With a phone number a random phone provider knows your identity. They do not get notified you are signing up for Signals. Google doesn’t know you signed up with that phone number for Signals either. Depending on your country and how these details are handled there may not be an easy way to lookup who you are from a phone number.
There’s obvious downsides to the phone number use, of course, but saying it the same in terms of privacy than this, doesn’t feel correct.
There’s identical security for the payment too. Assuming you trust Signal, they don’t keep a record of it tied to your actual account the same with a phone number.
“Your Signal code is…”
Oh, also, they’re just using Google Play for now. They’ll definitely be adding a generic CC option.
Could use a refillable credit card.
Google will know you paid Signal
That’s not ok either! Just stop playing these games and stop obstructing self hosting. When they come to round up all the Signal users, they won’t care what account belongs to who. So there should be no database that identifies the users.
If “they” get to the point of rounding up all Signal users, not using Signal will not prevent you from being rounded up.
If Google and Signal collude can they link payments to accounts via timing attacks? My guess is yes
It is almost as if they have no fucking clue who their customers are. Hilarious.
Hmm, I bet there’s a hidden 50 cent surcharge. Damn it, Loch Ness Moster, I ain’t giving’ you no tree fiddy!
Oh God dammit, it’s nessy again.
I gave him a dollar to make him go away.
Well, of course he’s not gonna go away! You give him a dollar, he’s gonna assume you got more!
Oddly enough, once you make that three fiddy payment signal will now potentially have a payment method linked to your account.
If this is true that payment method can essentially be tied to a identity.
I suppose the reason they are choosing to do this is to prevent a influx of bot accounts and spammers/scammers.
I was about to say, I feel like it’s easier to get a burner phone number to sign up with than to find an anonymous way of paying them 3 bucks
And if you are worried about Google’s involvement in this, Greyson Parrelli of the Signal team points out that the payment runs through the same zero-knowledge proof setup it uses for donations.
Looks like there is some way of decoupling the payer identity from the signal user
What zero-knowledge god damn? You are submitting your payment details, anything after that is pinky promise.
I figured they must be doing something along those lines, thanks for sharing!
From the official announcement
Can I buy an account on a device that has no Play Services?
Not yet. We have plans to add more payment methods, but currently only offer Play Store in-app payments, which requires Play Services.
Ok so given how long it took them to allow an alternative to phone numbers, it will probably be at least 5 years before you can pay using a de-googled phone. I really don’t understand what’s so hard for them to accept crypto, they already do for donations. Smells like government involvement.
That’s shitty, they have some cryptocoin don’t they? Sure it’s not great but if you exchange from some other currency and pay fast there’s not much risk
Yup they have their own crypto but they won’t accept it for creating accounts.
if you exchange from some other currency
Exactly. I can see why they probably won’t accept Monero for regulatory reasons, but just accept bitcoin so I can use a swap and pay with my monero
Could you all just stop trying to flee corporate greed jumping from one company to another? We already have XMPP, Matrix and other descentralized solutions.
Yeah why am I donating $10 a month every month for them to come up with shit like this. Google? Really? Now I question what else is going on behind the scenes.
If Signal had zero value to the three letter agencies, they probably wouldn’t be allowed to exist. Sucks, but I wouldn’t trust them much more than anything else American.
Honestly, for super secret communications, leave your phones at home and meet up irl.
if you’re donating, you should know they have a system to collect payments zero-knowledge (which they’ll also use for the $3)
Funny, cause they accept crypto for donating. Which they don’t use for the $3 fee.
I didn’t expect to get cancer from a website called itsfoss.com, but I guess it’s time to put an adblocker on my tablet, too.
Adblocker is the minimum requirement for modern web.
Much better.
Firefox+unlock+unlock paywall extension is the bare minimum to navigate.
Brave as fallback if something breaks.
I have this in Threema. Thank you
Why does a service that no longer does SMS want your phone number?
that is another issue, their reason is that it helps prevent people create unlimited spam accounts I think? It also helps to ease the transition from WhatsApp. It’s a compromise I can live with
Secret CIA Operation. $3 is traceable through payments
Not if they let you send cash (although that is, alas, unlikely).
Digital should be monero or something
Hopefully in the future they will offer the ability to pay with Monero.
-in the arms angels plays- Sarah m: “for only zero dollars, we could all migrate to reticulum and really inconvience the rich.” -slideshow of rich reptiles plays- “May you fiiiiiind some comfort here…”
Signal is not trustworthy, because they ban unofficial clients.
Honestly, just migrate to simplex. It has accounts down. Create how ever many. Solves phone stalking as well.
How many of your contacts are on simplex?
Convinced the 5 important ones. I’m not popular. It was hard work. Gotta start somewhere.
I’ve found one willing to switch. Those are poor stats indeed.
My main problem with switching over. It’s easier for people to use signal because it’s popular.
