Bugs and Suggestions

For all of those saying that you'll have to pay for a phone number, that would ruin both the aspect of privacy because with a transaction there's usually private data attached for the billing process and the argument that people either don't have a (mobile) phone number or share it when you can get SIM cards for a few bucks anyways and thus a new phone number

ＡλＩ May 22, 2021

Agree. there should be a way to signup with an authorized email like Gmail, but if the user who don't registered with phone number, spammed, then the account should be banned easier without mercy!

Eurisito Jun 9, 2021

Also, if the option is implemented, let us add a GPG public key to encrypt the mails automatically before to send it, because mails aren't absolute secure, but more secure than phones.

A you could be out if you lost your number and cannot recover it, also SIM swapping is a threat... Also, you can lost your number with a judicial order to the phone provider, by law they SHOULD give them the number.

If telegram sends the mails encrypted with our GPG public keys, it is impossible to others to enter into our account, even governments. Phone numbers are insecure.

Hexandcube Jul 3, 2021

This is really important, especially if Telegram want's to be an open platform. In many countries (like Poland), you can't just go to the store and grab a pre-paid SIM card. You have to register it with the government with your ID. So you can't really be anonymous on Telegram.

Nao Jul 6, 2021

This is number 1 feature needed for Telegram to be called "secure" and "respecting privacy of the users".
Reasons:
1) There was already dumps with "phone number - username - userID" triplets. I don't know how they was obtained but I found myself in this dump despite the fact that option to hide the phone number was always "never" for me.
So I will just assume this info is public.

2) In some countries you can't legally buy a sim-card without your passport. Mobile operator knows your personal data and so do police, government, etc.
And not only them, the databases of mobile operators is constantly leaked to darknet or even becomes public.
Ironically, you can buy such info on telegram itself :) There are TG contacts who sells private data. You pay with cryptocurrency, write phone number and get passport and other personal data.
So phone number sometimes = passport.

3) Sim-card can be legally or illegally cloned. The person who did this will have access to your contacts chat history (except secret chats) and some other critical info.
AFAIK, two-factor verification password will protect you in this case, but not all people use password because it's optional.
So for most TG users (who doesn't use 2FA and use non-secret-chats) sim card = access to TG account data (chat history, contact list).
...

<...continuation...>
4) Your mobile operator (and other affiliated parties) will know you are using Telegram. In some countries this fact alone is dangerous.

5) If you want to make another tg account (for various reasons, e.g. to erase your past identity, to separate "work" and "personal" identity and many other use cases) you need to buy a new sim card.

6) You depend on your sim-card. If you loose access to it - you will loose your account if you not act quickly and move it to new number as fast as possible.

7) You can't register Telegram account if you don't have phone number at all. E.g. you only need Telegram on your PC, but you forced to buy a sim card and a phone.

Summarizing the statements above: Any time you send a message on TG - there will be your real name, address, phone number and other personal data written above the message. And with little effort - your chat history and contact list is also available.
This is not very secure and privacy-friendly.

Baptiste Jul 10, 2021

Upvoted. Please add this to the use cases, which is my main concern:
avoid login problems if the phone number changes or if the phone is lost / stolen.
Even if we have a backup, people should be able to log in without a phone number, for example with a password or email address (more secure than SMS code that can be intercepted). Unless we configured two-step verification with a password and recovery email address, logging in using only an SMS code gives access to all encrypted messages, which is a very weak security!
In addition, you should allow logging in using a desktop app, like it was possible previously using an SMS code. Logging in using the web version without desktop or mobile app should be possible also. People that don't use Android or iOS cannot log in to the desktop app anymore unless they use a third-party client like Kotatogram (https://bugs.telegram.org/c/4239).
Users should have the choice to log in without another device even if less secure.
Because of these issues, I cannot recommend people to use Telegram.

Warai Otoko Jul 10, 2021

Baptiste

Now all of us know you upvote and show your interest in the suggestion. You don't need to re-send & re-delete your comments many times so that it'll continue disturbing all users who focus on the requested feature with almost the same content but think about what you really want to say seriously, which can make your comment clearer, more precise and more meaningful.

Warai Otoko

Sorry, there was not edit button and I missed several things or did mistakes so I had to delete and resend it. I think my comment is ok now :D

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🫡 Aug 15, 2021

Besides email address, what are the current alternatives for phone numbers based sign ups right now?

Any other tech or concept we could use?

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