Damn. Fuck that.
My phone number and email is none of their business.
It's so dispiriting to see every form of communication on the internet moving to ever more spying on their users.
Don't want them to know your phone number or email address? Simply don't give it to them. It won't break your Matrix experience in any way. Using the centralized identity server is entirely opt-in for this specific reason.
So there are no channels on Matrix that require you to identify yourself before you can join?
Third Party ID's (email etc) are only used for opt-in contact discovery.
I remember that I gave my email when I signed up for Matrix at element.io but haven't found a way how to find out if I'm using the identity server. If my email ended up there, how can I see if it is public? How do I actually query the identity system for information, especially which information it has about myself?
I have tried to find this out, but it is not obvious at all and I could not find much information except the repeated statement that the identity system is optional. Any hints about the identity system are appreciated.
These are optional recovery methods.
F.U.D.