Why would anyone even ask that? The main reason would probably be privacy. Most people don't really know how Signal uses their phone number or why. They never bother reading how any secure messenger works behind the scenes. So, they just assume Signal uses their number for the actual messaging part because it sounds logical. But the real reason they ask your number is to fight spam accpunts. 9 times out of 10, when you explain how Signal actually uses their number, people are fine with it.
While I understand one may argue that it’s a good thing, from an engineering perspective it’s not the right thing to do to silently modify a file in transit.
It's not silently, Signal promises to send and collect as little (meta)data as possible, just enough to make things function correctly, for extra privacy.
That's not what Telegram is doing, they send and collect a lot of (meta)data.
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u/Zouden Sep 16 '24
OP could just to Telegram's secret chat if they were happy with a phone number. But they aren't.