Technoglitch
Core Member
“End-to-end encryption is when you have a message at one end, on your phone, and before you send it to another person it’s encrypted in such a way that only the recipient can decrypt it,” explained Micah Lee, a security technologist in San Francisco. For those whose brains get foggy with tech language, I like to think of “encryption” as locking the door with a key. Decrypting is unlocking the door — you need that same key. Bottom line is that you want your messages to stay locked up, or encrypted, from the moment you hit send to the second they’re read.
“Unfortunately, with normal SMS [text messages] you have very little privacy because they’re not encrypted,” said Lee, who was a staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation before joining investigative website The Intercept, in part to help protect its journalists from hacking.
THE TAKEAWAY
“Unfortunately, with normal SMS [text messages] you have very little privacy because they’re not encrypted,” said Lee, who was a staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation before joining investigative website The Intercept, in part to help protect its journalists from hacking.
THE TAKEAWAY
- End-to-end encryption is the gold standard, and WhatsApp, Signal and iMessage are best in class. They’re all free, as well.
- Remember that even if you use a service providing end-to-end encryption texts become vulnerable if the recipient does not. “You both need to be using the same app,” Lee reminded me a couple of times.
- Security experts recommend apps that use “open-source” software, which means that the code is publicly available and tech gurus can make sure there are no bugs or backdoors. “They can make sure it’s doing what it claims to be doing,” said Lee. Apple’s code is not open source, which means users must trust but cannot verify what’s promised.
- Nothing is foolproof: While the content of your text messages are secure when using services like WhatsApp, your meta data is vulnerable, which means that the existence of text messages can be determined. Said Lee, “Just by monitoring meta data it would be pretty easy to tell if someone is cheating on their partner, is looking for another job, or had an abortion or is a member of the NRA.” Yikes.
