Keep Your Texts Private With Signal
Signal is the best of all messaging platforms, and it is one of my two messengers of choice (stay tuned on The FOSS Albatross to learn about the other!). Here is a detailed explanation of why I switched and you should too.
Problems With Regular Texting
Regular texting, or SMS, is perhaps the most ubiquitous form of messaging. However, SMS is fraught with privacy and security issues!
SMS is based on the SS7 protocol of delivering messages from a sender to a receiver. The issue is that SS7 is quite old and vulnerable, thus making it susceptible to hacks from malicious parties. SS7 has been repeatedly hacked in the past, meaning that your calling and texting data could potentially be exposed!
Your cell provider has access to all your text message content and text message metadata, which includes the identities of the sender and receiver, time sent, and more! Anyone who can convince your cell provider to hand over that data, whether it be a government through warrants or a hacker through social engineering, knows everything about your communications.
You may be watched over by government intelligence agencies. Government mass surveillance programs have been made perhaps most famous by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who leaked documents related to the government intelligence agency’s monitoring of citizens through a variety of methods including texting data. Intelligence agencies can either directly capture your texting data through their networks or request that the data be handed over by private companies.
Such mass surveillance is especially concerning given its potential scale through the Five Eyes, an alliance of government intelligence agencies in the five countries of the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand who agree to share data for joint surveillance efforts.
Benefits of Signal
Signal is an app that uses the Internet rather than SMS for communication. As such, none of the vulnerabilities associated with SS7 or privacy issues regarding cell providers are present!
The privacy and security associated with Signal comes from the Signal protocol, which is the method through which messages are end-to-end encrypted. The use of end-to-end encryption means that only the sender and the receiver can read the content of the messages exchanged — neither Signal nor any other parties such as governments or hackers can read your messages if they intercept your communications.
In fact, the Signal protocol is the current standard for end-to-end encryption, being used by Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and many other messaging platforms! The Signal protocol is completely open source and has been well-tested to ensure its reliability.
What makes Signal unique is their handling of your metadata, which is arguably just as important as your message content. Signal only collects the minimum metadata required for communication to function, such as the identity of the receiver and the date of a user account creation. Since Signal is entirely open source and run by an independent nonprofit, it has no profit motive that would incentivize any invasive collection of your data!
Signal is also super easy to set up! Keep reading to learn more.
Problems With Some Other Messaging Platforms
You have probably heard of many other messaging platforms other than regular texting, but they have their problems as well!
Some other end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms include iMessage, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
The privacy issue with these messaging platforms is with their handling of your metadata. iMessage and WhatsApp are run by the big tech companies Apple and Facebook respectively and thus have a profit motive to gather as much information about their users as possible. This information can be used for targeted marketing that exploits larger user trends or individual user habits. Telegram is also known to log user data.
Through your metadata, big tech companies can know when you are online, when you send messages, when you read messages, to whom you send messages, from what IP address and thus location you are online, and so on.
Case Example: Imagine you are running a sneaker reselling business and contacting known suppliers and potential buyers. Through the metadata of your messages, a big tech company can easily identify you as a sneaker reselling business since you contacted people who are known to be sneaker suppliers. The company can then infer that other people you contact may also be suppliers or potential buyers. The company can even identify that you are based in Toronto and that you text primarily after school hours so are probably a student!
iMessage specifically also has the issue of unencrypted backups to iCloud, which defeat the purpose of end-to-end encryption if these backups are compromised.
WhatsApp since joining the Meta app family can share your data with other Facebook services, including metadata and other information that an app can access on your phone without permissions like your apps list and device info.
Telegram actually does not use the Signal protocol and instead uses their own protocol, MTProto 2.0. While this protocol may be end-to-end encrypted, it is fairly new, and some security experts have expressed concerns over its security.
Signal Setup and Use
All you need is the app and a phone number to set up Signal! Just follow the instructions in the app, which are very simple and intuitive. Then, you can use Signal just like you would any other messaging app!
Moreover, you can easily link other devices to your Signal account so you can communicate from your computer as well.
Switch to Signal now! Bolster your privacy and security while taking a step to support open-source software!
