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Signal registration without a phone number now available in Android beta (but payment required!) (aboutsignal.com)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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Signal has started rolling out Signal Login, an optional registration method that allows users to create a Signal account without providing a phone number. The feature will be rolled out first on Android and will come to iOS later.

As we previously reported, Signal Login is not a free alternative registration method. Signal requires users who choose to register without a phone number to make a one-time payment. The price at launch is $2.99 / € 3.49, although this may vary by region and currency.

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[–] 8 points 1 week ago* (1 child)

If it's "free" with a phone number and costs money to use another method (which is another form of PII) then the only explanation I can see is that having your phone number is worth at least $3 more to Signal than having your credit card number. Or maybe the fact that children can have a phone number but not a credit card and having information on kids is worth more to them.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 week ago

    No no no.

    The $3 is to incur a cost on would-be spammers. I don't think most Fedi users appreciate how much work goes into combatting spam at scale. Signal has hundreds of millions of users. Requiring a phone number limits the blast radius of successful spam campaigns. Removing that requirement means making it much easier for spammers to register.

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