You might know WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal. These messengers share one concept - they use your cell phone number as the primary identifier. Moreover, you can't create an account without the cell phone number.
Do I need to care about cell phone number?
Technically it's possible to get totally anonymous cell phone number. You can use so-called prepaid (e)SIM cards together with anonymous or pseudonymous payment methods.
In some countries you can even purchase "physical" SIM cards personally in supermarket. For instance, in Czechia it's still legal but this service is slowly vanishing all over the world. It's the same story, governments fight the terrorism.
But the (legal) ownership of the cell phone number is just one part of the story. The next part of the story is traceability, in some circumstances service providers have to cooperate with regime and then it's just a piece of cake to reveal you location. Busted.
So let's avoid cell phone number
So our best choice is just don't use services that requires cell phone number. Problem solved.
Well not quite. It's pretty hard to find such services nowadays. Everyone wants to know your number, even the email providers. I don't know the reason why it is like that but that's the reality and we need to cope with that.
But I have good news, such providers do exist! There's just handful of them but they do exist! So let's look at them.
Threema
Threema is Switzerland-based instant messaging app with strong focus on privacy. Providing your cell phone number is optional so it perfectly fits to our list.
In Slovakia, it has bad reputation due to Jan Kuciak`s case but it has nothing to do with the Threema itself. It's rather about the compromised device. So Threema can be still considered as the more private alternative. Also check the list of data collected by the provider.
Matrix
Another interesting project is Matrix. It's using concept of homeservers so you have to find your homeserver (that does not require email address), create an account there and then you can freely communicate.
If you're concerned about the data collected by the homeservers - check this document. Basically you can be tracked by some identifiers so you have to use this tool with caution together with other techniques to hide your identity. But it does not mean it's a bad tool. It's just about how you use this tool.
Session
This one is my personal favorite. It's easy to use, it does not need cell phone number and it does not collect any personal data.
One major feature of session is the structure of the network - every message is transported through a decentralized onion routing network to obfuscate your identity as much as possible.
Session also don't have any centralized identity management so you don't need to remember any username or password. Instead, you have to write down mnemonic seed that can be used to recover your identity on any device. This process is well-known in the world of crypto currencies.
Enough of talking, check the FAQ to get more information about this tool! As I've mentioned before, this is my personal favorite so that's why I went through some features in detail.
Wrap
And that's all I was able to find. Unfortunately. In past 10 years we cared more about the convenience than privacy so here we are. Thankfully we have at least some tools so we need to take this opportunity, reclaim our privacy and make the other vendors to deliver similar features.
And again, my personal favorite is Session due to extremely easy usage.
It's very important to be able to communicate privately and hide our identity if needed. If no one can't determine our identity from the data collected - we can't be persecuted. Now nor in the future.
And again, don't forget that tool works as intended only if it's used correctly. Even the most secure tool can reveal your identity and trust me there are bad actors that know how to abuse such information, especially those controlling monopoly on violence. Read the documentation. Read the FAQ. Read reddit discussions. Stay safe.
If I could conclude with a one sentence, it would be: try to avoid services requiring your cell phone number.
Cheers!
Top comments (1)
cool - thanks for sharing!