[guhcampos]

It's not always that simple. In many countries, like Brazil, you need a valid ID document to buy a SIM card, and the number is then and always linked to your government ID. This is the case for quite a few relatively free countries as a means to fraud prevention (not that it's particularly effective though).

[kojoru]

Specifically for telegram there's a (rather expensive) crypto-based no-sim option: https://telegram.org/blog/ultimate-privacy-topics-2-0/ru?set...

[bombcar]

Keeping your username from phone contacts is quite a different problem than keeping your name from the government.

[Geisterde]

Why is there such a pervasive crowd of people who chock this kind of thing up to a lost cause? From my prespective, if it can be done, we should, we must, do it. Is there something special about hiding something from a government thats qualitatively different than hiding it from any other criminal? That they can levy greater amounts of violence? Isnt that even greater justification to privacy?

[bombcar]

I'm fully in agreement; we have policies around warrants, etc that have been long-running and should in general treat the government as a quasi-malicious actor.

However, just because the government forces something for them doesn't mean we should just give up entirely for everything - the fact that the government knows your SIM purchase doesn't mean that random users on HN should be able to find it.

[Geisterde]

That I can agree with, we arent there yet, make use of the tools you have.