this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Privacy
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You can use whatever app you like, but I think this adds confusion.
Signal is private because no one can see your messages except the people you are messaging. The government can't, Signal themselves can't.
Signal is not anonymous only in the sense that the government can check if you use Signal. That's it. They can tell if you use Signal. They can't link messages to your number in any way through data requests, etc.
Not forcing anyone to use Signal, but if you choose to, you can know it is private.
(So this post is confusing privacy with anonimity basically)
Anonymity is a very big part of privacy and always has been. That is why you don't write your name on your voting ballot.
They are conceptually quite different.
People use both the terms interchangeably, but they are not the same thing.
Voting ballots are anonymous because you didn't write you name on them (and they can't be linked back to you hopefully), but they are not private because you have no control over how the data is used (once you submit a balot you have zero control over what happens to it next).
I'm not finding any definitions of "privacy" that suggest the term refers to control of something. Regardless of whether that something is within or outside of your reach.
From the page you linked:
Signal conceals what you say.
In a data sense specifically, I believe privacy refers to your data being hidden from unwanted eyes (aka you have control over who can see your data).
Which is also what you do when you vote. You control who has your identifying information and who has the information on how you voted. Which I guess is still different from Signal if we are still talking about that. Since you cannot control who has your identifying information.