The title pretty much says it all. According to the report:
the service will encrypt all messages, phone calls, photos, and videos moving among [the devices].
Moxie Marlinspike is involved, so they have a chance of getting it right, and no one, even WhatsApp, will be able to know what you”re saying, texting, viewing, &c. (Unless, of course, your widget is running malware, or the opposition can get their mitts on it.)-: They claim this is available on nearly a billion devices—this is a really big deal.
takyon: Alternate links with no Wired paywall: TechCrunch, Washington Post, CNET, Reuters.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 06 2016, @01:51AM
2) is a killer. Few of my contacts see any point in encrypting anything. Those who see a point only encrypt now and then. None can be bothered with full time encryption. No encryption app "works" if the intended recipient can't or won't install the software needed to decrypt the message. Those who only encrypt the odd message that they consider "important" are self defeating - surveillance knows what he'd doing all the rest of the time, so the odd encrypted message draws their attention. Chances are, if they know everything else, they have a good chance of deducing what he put in his encrypted message.
Encryption should be an integral part of all operating systems, as well as application. Joe Sixpack shouldn't have to think about it, he shouldn't have to opt-in or opt-out. Joe doesn't want to think, or make decisions.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday April 06 2016, @04:35AM
Signal is pretty cool in that you can replace your normal SMS app with it. You can use it to communicate, unenecrypted of course, with non-users, and encrypted between users.
One of the main issues with something like whatsapp, is that BOTH parties HAVE to install it, meaning that many people will be annoyed by having to run two different apps and remember who to use the encrypted app with. When people can use one app for both types of contacts, it lowers the barrier to entry for that individual (at the expense of making it easier to mistake who is who) and thereby makes it more likely for the app to spread over time.