Why is it so hard for Signal and Telegram to not require a phone number as an account identifier?
I don't need to verify anything by phone or even email. If I lose the password, the account is lost, so be it. I'll create a new one.
If I really want to, then I'll set up email/phone.
Given that Signal does not have access (by design) to much information about their users when they use the service, they can't really fight spam once accounts are created. You could do spam detection on the client and privacy-preserving voting in order to ban spammers, but the UX would be very poor and that opens a whole new can of worms.
Even if that leaks, the handle should be changeable, and the spam issue could be completely mitigated by having a tab for first time "message requests" separate from the normal inbox.
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.
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.
In this case, its painfully obvious.
Then assumptions such as "it's Signal's mission to provide private messaging in the face of government overreach" suddenly become very dubious.
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.
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.
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.
I've received hundreds of spam messages on Facebook, but I only found out about them years later when I clicked on "message request" tab by accident, it's extremely effective.
I had a spare SIM card that friends and family use when visiting from abroad. It's been unused for 90 days and has been deactivated. The number is lost, and irrecoverable. A friend had created a (second) Signal account with this number and can no longer log into new devices.
As a more mundane example: If I accidentally drop my phone into a river, the SIM is gone forever, and so is that line.
Sure, you can have a contract line which allows recovery. Depending on where you live, these can be several times more expensive than a regular pre-paid line.
Yeah, it may not work when you buy a prepaid SIM and decide not to use it for a long time, but for billed plans, it's impossible. I've been using the same cellphone number for the last 23 years. I'd got my phone stolen, I was able to reactivate my cell the same day with another phone.
E.g. in the US, Mint Mobile is $15/mo. and is prepaid in the sense that you buy blocks of months at a time. But if you lose your SIM they'll still send you another one with the same phone number.
So no, if you lose your SIM you don't necessarily lose your number, even if it's prepaid. That only happens if you're buying your SIM as an "anonymous" one-off purchase, which is not what most people do these days. Not to mention the increasing prevalence of eSIMs.
You lose your SIM? You go to a branch, verify your identity, and get a fresh new SIM for your line. There's no more straightforward and surefire way to recover any other type of account as of today.
Email isn't easier to recover at all unless you own and control it which nobody does.
In general emails don't just get removed and given out again if you don't interact with them for a few months. Phone numbers do usually after 6-12 months or even after 3 months for some providers.
You can prepay a domain for up to 10 years or more and always setup a email server when you need it so you essentially have full control, long term.
And don't get me started with possible SIM copy and stealing attacks. Things already pretty much solved with email and DMCA
As the owner of the same cell phone number for the last 23 years, proposing hosting your own email as an alternative to SIM cards that's available at every corner doesn't sound feasible to me at all. I don't even like cell operators, but that's just the way it is.
I've had a email startup (sold meanwhile, but still running) and seen all these mentioned issues and know very well how painful this can be, but far from impossible. There is a market for clean IPs for company infrastructure, that's a thing still as well.
Probably I shouldn't say email is much better. But phone numbers definitely are a very weak decision for any kind of security.
It is easy to create a new email, but not so easy to create and keep a new phone-number.