All apps that require a phone number are a scam, privacy-wise. Use Matrix.
To repeat my question, how are apps that require a phone number scamming users?
…and leak my message content, IP address and social network to everyone who cares to look? You're making a very broad claim here and implicitly assume a very specific threat model. I can come up with dozens of other threat models that are more relevant to me and everyone I know and that completely invalidate your statement.
Would you care detailing this?
- Private conversations are E2EE by default now, group chats can be E2EE.
- IP addresses are not leaked except when videoconferencing. This is also the case on Signal, mind you, unless you opt-in to use their proxy in the settings.
- Social networks? Care to explain that?
- Who is everyone? Your server admin? Your ISP? Someone MITMing your HTTPS connections?
I do not doubt the rest of your post, but the above criticism is just unfair, given what I know of the Matrix protocol. Of course, I could be mistaken.