Privacy advocates have been calling for the United States to adopt strong consumer privacy protection laws along the lines of the EU's GDPR for a long time now, but the proposed Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act isn't the answer we're looking for.
Erasing data from your computer may seem like a simple task, but if you want to make sure the data is truly unrecoverable, there are some things you should consider.
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We may think that we know the differences between privacy, security and anonymity, however we often mix them up. People will often criticize a product or service as “not private” when they really mean “not anonymous.” Privacy, security, and anonymity often complement each other, but they are not always dependent on each other, and they are definitely not the same thing. A service can be private without being anonymous, or even secure without being private. Which one should you prioritize?
Signal is a widely regarded instant messaging service that is not only easy to use but is also private and secure. Signal's strong E2EE implementation and metadata protections provide a level of assurance that only you and your intended recipients are able to read communications.
EDIT: This change has been temporarily rolled back after discussions that took place in the Signal community. It will likely be the way things work in the future, but it seems that the old behavior is now back in place for the time being.
Signal has changed how it handles registration. This primarily affects people who are using a number for Signal that they don't have exclusive access to.