[zrm]

> That sounds even worse.

It preserves the privacy of your contacts (no one learns that you have them as a contact) and people have a choice about whether to receive the notifications (it isn't spam). That's not worse.

> Is there a setting when you join that doesn't blast it to everyone who has you as a contact?

It isn't blasting it whatsoever. Their client is querying whether any of their contacts has Signal. If one does now that didn't before, and their client is configured to notify them when that happens, their client notifies them when that happens.

The client has to be able to determine whether it can use the network to contact a given peer. Removing the ability to provide a notification when that happens is just security through obscurity.

https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007061452-Do...