WhatsApp, text or email - which is the safest option when your conversations really need to be stopped?
Recent private messaging-with-congress-public news, with messages from diplomats, topped it up again for private exchanges as part of its impeachment investigation and what you have with the means you use There are options, providing a good jumping-off point to discuss. majority of.
There are varying degrees of privacy or security between chat and communication platforms. Finally, there are precautions that you can take.
Encryption, Apple says on its website, is used every day to protect trillions of online transactions, pay bills and communicate with programs such as its own iMessage or FaceTime or Facebook's WhatsApp. Encryption, Apple says, "transforms your data into indecent text."
And this has been a hot topic in Washington. Attorney General William Barr wrote to Facebook, asking it to change its encryption policy for WhatsApp.
Berar said, "We must find a way to protect data with public safety and balance the need for law enforcement, requiring them to protect the public, investigate crimes and prevent future criminal activity Ho, ”said Barr.
Facebook opposed Barr's request.
Meanwhile, how to encrypt your communication?
Start email
Messages written through popular web programs such as Google's Gmail, Microsoft's Outlook or Yahoo Mail are not encrypted by default, nor government or corporate e-mail. Micah Lee says that there are ways to send encrypted Gmail, but only through other Gmail users, through third-party plug-ins. Both free webmail programs are easy to track. , Director of Information Security for the Intercept website. "It's easiest to spy on e-mail," he says.
That said, there are a handful of startups offering encrypted e-mail, including Switzerland-based Proton, while Microsoft offers the ability to encrypt Outlook (for paying customers), but this is complicated. You essentially turn it into opacity and send a "digital key" to the recipient to unlock it and make it readable.
So you want to turn on the phone and secure text messages
"But you shouldn't use a company device," Lee says. "Many of these have corporate spyware and you can take a screenshot of what you are doing. Only use your personal phone."
If your personal phone is Samsung, it provides the facility to encrypt data after it is generated and is stored on an external SD card for the Galaxy phone. To use this feature for text messages, download the Messages app for Android and take them there. Know that once you encrypt data, you can only decrypt the data on the same device. Samsung notes that you will not be able to read it anywhere else.
Additionally, the iPhone has a feature that can prevent outside powers such as law enforcement or the government from tapping into your phone and using a USB device to grab your unencrypted data. Go to Settings, Touch ID, and Passcode, and scroll down for USB accessories to prevent USB accessories from connecting when the iPhone has been locked for more than an hour.
Traditional SMS text messages on your phone
According to Apple, the most commonly used digital device in the United States, texts sent to the iPhone are encrypted, and thus, according to Apple, will not be able to be read without decoding. The company says that text messages stored on its iCloud service will also be encrypted, as long as the user has opted for two-factor authentication sign-in. Note that if the person on the other end does not have an iPhone, the message is no longer encrypted. (Android phones don't encrypt SMS messages by default, Lee says, but as we mentioned, they have to support an external card and opt to manually encrypt data.)
Encrypted chat application
Signal, Wire, Rakuten Viber and WhatsApp are popular apps for viewing secure encrypted written and spoken conversations. Yes, the same WhatsApp owned by Facebook, the company that has apologized several times for security breaches.
Because WhatsApp is the most popular chat program in the world, used by over 1 billion users, it is more likely that the person you want to talk to currently uses it. Lee says that it is a huge bonus to be able to communicate freely and privately. And it makes a big deal on its website about how messages are encrypted and not read by company executives.
However, Facebook has access to your metadata and can determine who and when you spoke to, adding Lee.
This app signal does not have Facebook ownership issues and is considered the go-to app for the most secure form of communication. Even former US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has been hiding in Russia since 2013, provides a testimonial on Signal's home page.
"Signal messages and calls are always end-to-end encrypted and painstakingly engineered to secure your communications," the company says. "We cannot read your messages or see your calls, and no one can."
Signal states that it does not accept advertising and is supported by grants and donations.
-Germany-based Wire says it provides the "strongest protection" for organizations and their workers, but is not free, starting at around $ 6.50 monthly. "End-to-end encryption gives you the confidence to talk, message and share with the team and with customers through an app available on all your devices," the company says.
-Rakuten Viber, based in Japan, states on its website that it offers a "secret chats" feature that lets users set self-destructive timers, so "mission: impossible" or like Snapchat after reading a message. "It has been automatically removed from Viber chat."
Facebook Messenger
These messages are not encrypted by default, but they can be. Facebook offers a feature called "Secret Conversation" for private chatting, but both parties must turn it on to work. (Click the word "incognito" in the top right of the screen on the iPhone or the lock icon in one place on Android)
Authenticity can be proved by both parties during negotiations to check their digital ID keys (stored under the person's name) and make sure they match.
But privacy is in the eye of the beholder, because the person at the other end of this encrypted conversation can easily make a screenshot and share it with the world.
Still, Facebook says the messages are "only for you and anyone else - no one else, including us."
Meanwhile, Lee understands why diplomats may have opted for texting. "It's quicker and more convenient. Who wants to wait for e-mail to arrive?"