“Hey Dad, I need your credit card for ________________.”
Almost every parent has received this text or call at some point. In fact, it recently happened to Sense’s own CFO, John. Knowing what we at Sense know about the dangers of sending private information, John was hesitant to react to this urgent request.
What was John so worried about?
To start, let’s look at two of the most popular messengers: Facebook Messenger, and iMessage (powered by Apple’s iCloud).
Facebook Messenger
Boasting over 1.2 billion users, you likely have Facebook Messenger on your phone. Have you ever read the terms of the intrusive access you have provided to Facebook? For most of us, with app updates automatic while we sleep, they could put almost anything in there and we may never see it. From the looks of it, that’s exactly what has happened:
In case the fine print above is too small, some of the major items are their ability to:
“Well,” you might say, “just because they can do all those things, it doesn’t mean they’re actually doing them.” A fair point indeed, but it was recently confirmed that not only is Facebook actively reading your messages, but they’re also sharing (some might say selling) your private information with other apps, like Spotify and Netflix.
That doesn’t sound like a safe space to share private and sensitive information, does it?
Apple iMessage (iCloud)
In response to Facebook’s scandal with Cambridge Analytica, Apple has been on the forefront, pushing for stronger data privacy regulations. They also resisted the FBI’s demand to provide a backdoor to unlock the phone of a shooter in San Bernardino, California in 2016. Although they seem to be the “good guys” in the fight for user privacy, they’ve been less successful with protecting their users from hackers.
It seems that every year there is a report of a new phishing scheme, directed at iPhone users. A phishing scheme is when hackers send emails that look like they’re from a trusted provider and ask you to confirm or update your login information. Once you do, you are actually just giving them your email address and password.
And it’s not only the technically savvy criminals that can gain access but also those with enough money to spend from some of their other ill-gotten gains. Computerworld found that iCloud accounts are some of the most valuable on the dark web, going for upwards of $15 per account. The only credentials people are paying more for are your online banking information.
So if we can’t trust our favorite social media company and our phones are too vulnerable to hacks, how are we to share sensitive and private information with our loved ones?
There’s a better way.
Zac, our Director of Marketing, took some early initiative and signed his entire family up for the Sense Chat beta. When his dad requested his Social Security number for a shared credit card, Zac knew that he could safely and securely transmit this sensitive information without fear of hackers or corporations getting in the middle of his message.
Sense Chat is different and we’re the first fully decentralized communication platform. Sense Chat allows you to message and video chat directly with anyone in the world, without any of your conversation information being stored. That means we don’t have access to the private messages you send like credit cards, social security numbers, or other sensitive information and there’s nobody that we give (or sell) that access to.
It’s truly phone to phone.
Pre-order the app here: https://my.sense.chat/medium-danger-of-sending-private-information
