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Episode 297 is the last vote of the year! Though guests have already won But hey, vote anyway!


G+_All About Android
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Signal is written by Open Whisper Systems, who have written the Signal encryption protocol for the app (universally praised encrypted protocol).

 

WhatsApp uses the Signal protocol but with enough tweaking for Facebook to read your posts unless you have to set it up to not. (Still not trustworthy as the app comes with Facebook "improving your experience" enabled).

 

Google Allo keeps the keys for your public chats (the ones with the Google Assistant so that Google Assistant can function). The private (incognito) chats are supposedly secure and encrypted, we would have to take Google at their word.

 

Telegram has their own unvetted encryption which leaks metadata. Also by default all chats are public (like WhatsApp) however this app never tells you that your chat is unencrypted even though they use this as their primary selling point.

 

Apple's iMessage has a pretty crap protocol, it is vulnerable to man in the middle attacks and Apple owns all the session keys so they can read your text regardless of the spin they put on it.

 

Hangouts, Skype etc are not encrypted.

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Pradyumn Vij you said:

 

WhatsApp uses the Signal protocol but with enough tweaking for Facebook to read your posts unless you have to set it up to not. (Still not trustworthy as the app comes with Facebook "improving your experience" enabled).

 

Is there a way disable the "Facebook "improving your experience"" ?

 

Also, I believe, unlike what Brady Forrest said - Signal does not act as your SMS handler, it's an internet messaging app exactly like WhatsApp & Allo that it uses your phone number as an identifier but does not send your SMSs through your carrier...right?

 

Thank You for any replies!

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Dino D Fantozzi it seems you could only during August / September (limited period) all options on future version have it permanently enabled, meaning all WhatsApp users that weren't aware of the security change in August have their chat available to Facebook (to "improve Facebook advertisements"). This is highly unfortunate if you're a WhatsApp user. It was covered in Security Now.

 

Signal can indeed handle your SMS, it's doing so on my phone and asks you on installation.

 

This differentiates it from Allo and Whatsapp to a degree.

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