Signal Login and the payment trail it leaves
In Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, every mobile number, prepaid SIMs included, is registered to a real identity, and the same holds across most of East and Southeast Asia. A Signal account is opened against a phone number, so however strong the encryption, the carrier's registration record ties the account to a named person. For journalists' sources, activists working across borders, and anyone who does not want their account traced back to them, the phone number has long been the most cited limitation of Signal.
In September 2026 Signal's Android beta opened a way to register without a phone number, called Signal Login, in exchange for a small one-time payment. The obvious worry followed: doesn't the payment record bring your identity right back? Signal reuses the zero-knowledge credentials from its donation system so that an account cannot be matched to a specific purchase. The payment date still travels with the account, however, and Google keeps a record that you bought it. Whether to use Signal Login, and how to pay, depends on which kind of tracing you need to defend against.
