Your smartphone is more private than any diary ever was. Texts, memes, late-night talks – all is stored in your glass rectangle. There is a thing: most of the chats fly around cyberspace unencrypted, as if someone shouts in a loud cafeteria. If you do not use encrypted messaging services, your personal communication is unprotected.
About the encrypted messaging, it may seem complicated, but the concept is simple. Imagine that you are sending a message coded by special code only you and your friend know. A messenger delivers it, but even if an attacker intercepts it, he will see only a bunch of gibberish. That is the idea behind the end-to-end encryption. No one except sender and recipient will be able to read the message: not developers of the application, not your ISP, not hacker sitting in a coffee shop with his laptop.
"Why would anyone be interested in my texts?", – you may wonder. Well, to be honest, you are not that special to the random hacker, but you are still a target. Today data is the new gold. Large corporations collect it to deliver you more advertisements, while hackers try to steal your passwords or compromising photos. Thus, protecting your privacy is not about hiding something illegal; it is about preserving decency in the world watched by everything.
Let's start with an application that you definitely use a lot: iMessage. If you are an iPhone owner, then you are almost done. All chats with iPhone users will be displayed in blue bubbles. Blue bubbles mean that your text is encrypted. But make sure that iMessage is activated. Go to Settings, find the Messages section and turn iMessage on. Seems obvious, but sometimes software updates turn it off automatically.
The problem with iMessage is that if you text Android users, bubbles will be green. Green bubbles mean that your message is transmitted through the SMS or MMS protocol. Both of them are extremely insecure – as if you wrote your password on a sticky note. Apple will support soon RCS, but it will not provide you end-to-end encryption. The solution in this case is simple: use other apps to communicate with your Android friends.
Now, let's talk about the real heavyweight among private messaging applications: WhatsApp. The fact that it belongs to Meta may put you off, but their encryption is strong. WhatsApp uses famous Signal Protocol as the basis for encryption technology. To check your settings, you should open the app, tap three dots in the top right corner, then Settings, next Account, then Privacy and finally Security. There you should find a toggle for Security Notifications. Activate it. This will notify you in case if the contact changed his security code – it happens if he reinstalls the app or changes his device.
However, there is one more step you should do to ensure the privacy of your chats. You have to activate Two-Step Verification in WhatsApp. This option will add six-digit PIN which you have to enter each time you will register your phone number with WhatsApp. Without activating it, a malicious user could steal your SIM card and gain control over your account. Go to Account, then Two-Step Verification and activate it. It takes only thirty seconds, but will save you a lot of problems.
Finally, let's discuss the champion of privacy: Signal. If you are interested in keeping your chats safe, then use this application. Unlike large corporations, Signal is managed by a non-profit organization which tries to protect your data, not to harvest it for profit. Signal uses end-to-end encryption for everything: texts, voice calls, video calls and even GIFs you send to each other. There is no way to activate end-to-end encryption, as it is already active in Signal.
Moreover, Signal has a unique Sealed Sender feature. It means that Signal's servers don't know who sent a message to whom. They only know that a message was sent. To use this feature, you should download Signal app, register your phone number and go to Settings. Tap Privacy and then Sealed Sender. Make sure that this feature is activated.
Let's discuss gamers and communities builders. Discord has become extremely popular recently. However, it has a strange approach to encryption. First of all, Discord does not offer end-to-end encryption for text chats. In this case, they can read your messages. However, when it comes to voice and video, they use standard encryption protocol. If you share some confidential information in a server, then you should be aware of that.
Telegram is another large social network, but it is tricky one. By default, Telegram chats are not encrypted with end-to-end encryption. They are server-client encrypted, meaning that Telegram owns the key of encryption. To obtain end-to-end encryption, you should launch "Secret Chat". Start a chat with your friend, tap his name and choose "Start Secret Chat" option. It is inconvenient that you have to perform this action manually each time, but you have to if you want encryption.
Snaps are very popular among young people, but keep in mind that they are not really private. Snaps are encrypted in transit, but Snap has decryption keys and can read your snaps. Moreover, they can give access to your data to third parties in case of emergency. As you understand, there is no way to solve that problem and you shouldn't use Snap to transfer any confidential information.
Facebook Messenger works similarly to Snapchat. Facebook Messenger is not encrypted by default, so you have to activate the "Secret Conversations" option. Open a chat, tap the name of your friend at the top of the chat window and choose "Go to Secret Conversation" option. Again, it is inconvenient to do that manually, but you won't get end-to-end encryption otherwise.
So, why should you care? Think about your future. You are applying to a college or a job, and a leaked DM from your past can ruin everything. It may sound a little bit exaggerated, but screenshots exist. End-to-end encryption guarantees that no middleman can leak your information, though it is not guaranteed that your friend won't take a screenshot of his screen. At least, this is your first line of defense.
There is also the problem of metadata. Even with end-to-end encryption, apps know your contacts and time of conversation. Signal minimizes metadata retention, WhatsApp retains it a little bit longer. Again, you have to decide for yourself which option is better for you.
Setting up all these options takes about ten minutes per app. It is less time than you spend watching a single episode of your favorite show. You don't need to be a tech-savvy to perform this task. You just need to care enough to press a couple of buttons. It is just like locking your apartment door. It doesn't protect from the determined burglar, but it protects you from casual snoops.
So, please, go and check your settings now. I am serious! Go to WhatsApp and activate Two-Step Verification. Check your iMessages and make sure that they are active. Download Signal if you want the real end-to-end encryption. Don't wait until your account is hacked to worry about it. By this moment, it will be too late.
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