Messaging Apps: Encrypted or not? WhatsApp, iMessage, Discord, Zoom, etc.

[GGGos]

Using end-to-end encrypted messaging services can make this data inaccessible to third parties and protection from bad actors. So the question is, which popular messaging apps use end-to-end encryption?

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/2340-messaging-apps-encryption/

 

[Geralt]

Telegram is my favorite app for chats, and Skype for video chats. Signal is good but still bare bones.

 

[MarkHughes]

I moved to Signal when Farcebook took over Whatsapp, It's basic but it does all that I need.

 

[Markoni35]

Telegram is more invasive than WhatsApp. It asks for more permissions on my phone. When an app starts doing that, it's a signal to uninstall it. Unfortunately, some of my friends are using Telegram exclusively, so I can't.

Does anyone really believe in end-to-end encryption? I mean, the asymmetric keys are only used to exchange the symmetric keys, which are then used for real-time encryption/decryption. Accessing the asymmetric keys relies on the confirmation by a 3rd party. Which means this 3rd party (or the IM service provider itself) has access to it, and anyone who controls the channel to the 3rd party verification process. Once they have your asymmetric key, they will also get the symmetric key, which means your data is not really protected from them.

Sure, they are protected from random hackers, but don't ever think, even for a moment, there exists a true end-to-end encryption.

 

[bviktor]

Telegram is more invasive than WhatsApp. It asks for more permissions on my phone. When an app starts doing that, it's a signal to uninstall it. Unfortunately, some of my friends are using Telegram exclusively, so I can't.

Does anyone really believe in end-to-end encryption? I mean, the asymmetric keys are only used to exchange the symmetric keys, which are then used for real-time encryption/decryption. Accessing the asymmetric keys relies on the confirmation by a 3rd party. Which means this 3rd party (or the IM service provider itself) has access to it, and anyone who controls the channel to the 3rd party verification process. Once they have your asymmetric key, they will also get the symmetric key, which means your data is not really protected from them.

Sure, they are protected from random hackers, but don't ever think, even for a moment, there exists a true end-to-end encryption.

Yes, feel free to come up with conspiracy theories. That's not how math and algorithms work though.

 

[bviktor]

Telegram is my favorite app for chats, and Skype for video chats. Signal is good but still bare bones.

+1 it really is the bee's knees.

 

[hahahanoobs]

These apps are pointless, because everyone you call or text has to use the same one for it to work. iMeasage is the best, but it only works for iPhone users.

Wake me when there is one solution and a convincing reason why I should use it.

 

[mrbofus]

"FaceTime can’t make any contact at all with anyone using a non-Apple device."

That's not true, at least since iOS 15 was released just over a month ago.

 

[Fearghast]

I use Signal for quite a while now, and I was able to convince a lot of people to go there as well.
I love the fact, that desktop app for PC simply works (and reliably) ... unlike let's say Whatsup.

 

[Vanderlinde]

Even tho they all advertise with being safe messengers; your root problem is the terms and conditions such apps have; and in where suspects pretty much have carte blanche in relation of goverment(s). It's a bit of false advertising. Any court order pretty much allows 'm to have full access. What do you mean "safe" ?

 

[Markoni35]

Yes, feel free to come up with conspiracy theories. That's not how math and algorithms work though.

LOL, different versions of man-in-the-middle attack are now conspiracy theories? Wow. Didn't get that memo. What else is a conspiracy theory? Quantum entanglement? Bell's inequality? Periodic table of elements? A* search algorithm? Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression? What else?

 

[VasRet]

WhatsApp are centralized messengers that can sell your data anytime.. it is best to use p2p messengers as a utopia ecosystem

 

[marroh]

I love the fact, that desktop app for PC simply works (and reliably) ... unlike let's say Whatsup.

Thats not really correct. WhatsApp has a desktop app for Windows which works well and can be used independently of the smartphone, even on several devices and platforms at the same time, even if the smartphone of the WhatsApp account in question is switched off. Just said...

 

[Fearghast]

Thats not really correct. WhatsApp has a desktop app for Windows which works well and can be used independently of the smartphone, even on several devices and platforms at the same time, even if the smartphone of the WhatsApp account in question is switched off. Just said...

I know it exists, I use it. My point is miserable reliability of said app.