Signal's coming update, to hide personal numbers behind usernames, is a good step forward.
It's not perfect (why use phone numbers at all), but it's a good compromise between privacy and convenience, since Signal's network effects exceed the 'rest of the privacy pack' (threema, session, etc).
This blog isn't about that update, it's from the archives, and gives a good overview of the main arguments.
Are your private communications being read before they get encrypted? That's the main difference between WhatsApp (reads them for the benefit of the wider Meta ecosystem) and Signal (which doesn't).
#privacy
#surveillance
#onlinesafetybill