Today I met up with a friend and I didn't use #signal or #whatsapp, I communicated via #sms. Could this be the most private, least #US tech-dependent way? And in most cases is for free #bringSMSbaxk
@aral You are right but I have to say that at least the postcard is not going through a #FAANG HQ :). I would also think #sms is considered legally a private communication.
@aral there is much info online about sms security and privacy issues. To send them safely you could encrypt them so only the receiver could decrypt it. Otherwise not great.
Even then (I can’t believe I’m defending WhatsApp/Facebook/Meta/that asshole billionaire), not really.
Unless Meta is blatantly lying about the message contents being end-to-end encrypted (even if the metadata isn’t* and even if the metadata is correlated with Facebook data) it is still more secure/privacy friendly than SMS, which is open to surveillance by anyone.
But the key thing here is neither SMS nor WhatsApp should be promoted for use when there is Signal, Delta chat, etc.
(So, to put it into context, if someone in a vulnerable situation is using WhatsApp, getting them to use Signal instead is a good step towards making them safer but recommending SMS might get them killed.)
Aral Balkan
in reply to Martin Nadal • • •Martin Nadal
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •aBe
in reply to Martin Nadal • • •aBe
in reply to aBe • • •Martin Nadal
in reply to aBe • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Martin Nadal • • •Even then (I can’t believe I’m defending WhatsApp/Facebook/Meta/that asshole billionaire), not really.
Unless Meta is blatantly lying about the message contents being end-to-end encrypted (even if the metadata isn’t* and even if the metadata is correlated with Facebook data) it is still more secure/privacy friendly than SMS, which is open to surveillance by anyone.
But the key thing here is neither SMS nor WhatsApp should be promoted for use when there is Signal, Delta chat, etc.
(So, to put it into context, if someone in a vulnerable situation is using WhatsApp, getting them to use Signal instead is a good step towards making them safer but recommending SMS might get them killed.)
* Yes, they do kill people based on metadata. (abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines…)
Ex-NSA Chief: 'We Kill People Based on Metadata'
ABC News