Martin NadalMar 6
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
Show threadAral BalkanMar 6
@muimota SMS is not end-to-end encrypted. Consider an SMS message no more secure or private than sending a postcard.
Show threadMartin NadalMar 6
@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.
Show threadaBeMar 6
@muimota @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.
Show threadaBeMar 6
@muimota @aral I wouldn't be surprised if all sms are stored and analyzed by foreign govs.
Show threadMartin NadalMar 6
@hamoid @aral ok, maybe it is not as awesome as a thought. But can we agree that is better than #whatsapp? :)
Show threadAral Balkan

@muimota @hamoid 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. (https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/05/ex-nsa-chief-we-kill-people-based-on-metadata)

Ex-NSA Chief: 'We Kill People Based on Metadata'

"‘…but that’s not what we do with this metadata," says Gen. Michael Hayden.

ABC News
Mar 6 at 10:58amWeb