We don’t build the product for anonymity (although it can provide it), we build it for privacy of ordinary users from the operator and any observers. Privacy means not just secrecy of my messages, by definition in includes the privacy of my associations. I don’t need to hide my identity from people I talk to (=anonymity). But I absolutely don’t want my communication service provider observing my connections. Why is it so? Because apparently as this information is not private, and shared publicly, it can be further shared with the third parties - especially in the US. And a lot of third parties having visibility of this connection graph doesn’t just create risks for freedom in oppressive regimes. It has a direct impact on the prices we pay online - targeted prices, aka price discrimination, becomes the norm for a growing number of online retailers. And if you think that it results in wealthier people paying more you are wrong - usually it works in the opposite direction, known as “poverty premium”. So privacy doesn’t seem something only a niche market needs - it seems like something absolutely everybody needs, and that Signal, WhatsApp, Session etc. simply cannot provide whether they use phone numbers or not - any form of identification is good enough to reconstruct connection graph via correlation of communication patters with the existing public networks - it won’t be flawless but it will be precise enough for targeted pricing. So it’s just have to stop, and privacy of our associations from communication providers should become a norm, not an exception.

We don’t build the product for anonymity (although it can provide it), we build it for privacy of ordinary users from the operator and any observers. Privacy means not just secrecy of my messages, by definition in includes the privacy of my associations. I don’t need to hide my identity from people I talk to (=anonymity). But I absolutely don’t want my communication service provider observing my connections. Why is it so? Because apparently as this information is not private, and shared publicly, it can be further shared with the third parties - especially in the US. And a lot of third parties having visibility of this connection graph doesn’t just create risks for freedom in oppressive regimes. It has a direct impact on the prices we pay online - targeted prices, aka price discrimination, becomes the norm for a growing number of online retailers. And if you think that it results in wealthier people paying more you are wrong - usually it works in the opposite direction, known as “poverty premium”. So privacy doesn’t seem something only a niche market needs - it seems like something absolutely everybody needs, and that Signal, WhatsApp, Session etc. simply cannot provide whether they use phone numbers or not - any form of identification is good enough to reconstruct connection graph via correlation of communication patters with the existing public networks - it won’t be flawless but it will be precise enough for targeted pricing. So it’s just have to stop, and privacy of our associations from communication providers should become a norm, not an exception.

We don’t build the product for anonymity (although it can provide it), we build it for privacy of ordinary users from the operator and any observers. Privacy means not just secrecy of my messages, by definition in includes the privacy of my associations. I don’t need to hide my identity from people I talk to (=anonymity). But I absolutely don’t want my communication service provider observing my connections. Why is it so? Because apparently as this information is not private, and shared publicly, it can be further shared with the third parties - especially in the US. And a lot of third parties having visibility of this connection graph doesn’t just create risks for freedom in oppressive regimes. It has a direct impact on the prices we pay online - targeted prices, aka price discrimination, becomes the norm for a growing number of online retailers. And if you think that it results in wealthier people paying more you are wrong - usually it works in the opposite direction, known as “poverty premium”. So privacy doesn’t seem something only a niche market needs - it seems like something absolutely everybody needs, and that Signal, WhatsApp, Session etc. simply cannot provide whether they use phone numbers or not - any form of identification is good enough to reconstruct connection graph via correlation of communication patters with the existing public networks - it won’t be flawless but it will be precise enough for targeted pricing. So it’s just have to stop, and privacy of our associations from communication providers should become a norm, not an exception.

That actually makes sense and is proper motivation. Thanks for the extensive response!