PCMag UK: Google Enables End-to-End Encryption for RCS Group Chats. “Group text chats between Android users should now have the same privacy as one-to-one conversations, courtesy of Google completing an upgrade to its RCS messaging service that extends end-to-end encryption to multiple-person chats.”
Tag Archives: messaging
The Guardian: WhatsApp and Signal unite against online safety bill amid privacy concerns
The Guardian: WhatsApp and Signal unite against online safety bill amid privacy concerns . “The rival chat apps WhatsApp and Signal have joined forces in a rare show of unity to protest against the online safety bill, which they say could undermine the UK’s privacy and safety.”
Bleeping Computer: Russia bans foreign messaging apps in government organizations
Bleeping Computer: Russia bans foreign messaging apps in government organizations. “Russia’s internet watchdog agency Roskomnadzor warns that laws banning the use of many foreign private messaging applications in Russian government and state agencies came into force today.”
Six Colors: New tool generates more useful Mastodon link previews in Messages
Six Colors: New tool generates more useful Mastodon link previews in Messages. “Just the other day, I was lamenting one of my big frustations with Mastodon—that links to posts, unlike tweets, don’t display nicely in Messages. Instead you get a preview that shows the poster’s profile image and their name, rather than the actual text or image of the post itself…. Well, the ball may be in Apple’s court, but not everybody’s waiting for them to return the serve. iOS developer Tyler Hillman has come up with a workaround: a web service that can provide the necessary metadata to show post content in Messages.”
TechCrunch: Google is testing end-to-end encryption for group chats in the Messages app
TechCrunch: Google is testing end-to-end encryption for group chats in the Messages app. “Google said… it is testing end-to-end encryption for RCS-based group chats on its Messages app — RCS stands for Rich Communication Services. The company noted that in the coming weeks it will be rolling out this feature to select users that are part of the app’s open beta program.”
Gizmodo: Google Hangouts Is Finally Ready to Die
Gizmodo: Google Hangouts Is Finally Ready to Die. “Google is just about ready to let Hangouts die its famously long death, and the company is asking users to not look back as they mosey on over to Google Chat. It’s the end of an era, of sorts, namely the wasted time the tech giant spent trying to make an all-in-one dedicated call and messaging app work within its vast suite of native apps.”
MakeUseOf: The 6 Best All-In-One Messaging Platforms to Simplify Your Messaging
MakeUseOf: The 6 Best All-In-One Messaging Platforms to Simplify Your Messaging. “With all the messaging apps available, it’s often hard to keep track of whose messaging you and where. All-in-one messaging platforms offer a solution to this modern-day problem. These platforms allow you to organize various messaging apps in one place, allowing you to say goodbye to the days of juggling multiple apps to communicate with friends, family, and coworkers.”
University of New South Wales: Unlocking the secret to private messaging apps
University of New South Wales: Unlocking the secret to private messaging apps. “Whether you’re sharing confidential information or swapping movie ideas with a friend, people are turning to private messaging apps that offer end-to-end encryption to protect the contents of their conversations. When data is shared over the internet, it often traverses a series of networks to reach its destination. Apps such as WhatsApp, owned by social media giant Meta (formerly Facebook), provide a level of privacy that even challenges Government agencies from accessing encrypted conversations.”
Ars Technica: Amid backlash from privacy advocates, Meta expands end-to-end encryption trial
Ars Technica: Amid backlash from privacy advocates, Meta expands end-to-end encryption trial. “Meta is ever so slowly expanding its trial of end-to-end encryption in a bid to protect users from snoops and law enforcement.”
Intel 471: How cybercriminals are using messaging apps to launch malware schemes
Intel 471: How cybercriminals are using messaging apps to launch malware schemes. ” Apps like Discord and Telegram have underlying elements that allow users to create and share programs or other types of content that’s used inside the platform. These programs, colloquially known as ‘bots,’ or other content allows for users to share media, play games, moderate channels, or any other automated task a developer can devise. Cybercriminals have figured out how to leverage this for their own begotten gains.”
Poynter: MediaWise launches a free text message course to help voters prepare for the US midterms
Poynter: MediaWise launches a free text message course to help voters prepare for the US midterms. “With less than four months until the U.S. midterms, the social-first digital media literacy initiative MediaWise at the nonprofit Poynter Institute has launched Find Facts Fast, a free multimedia messaging service that teaches voters how to quickly discover reliable and trustworthy information online.”
Gizmodo: Fired Employee Claims Facebook Created Secret Tool to Read Users’ Deleted Messages
Gizmodo: Fired Employee Claims Facebook Created Secret Tool to Read Users’ Deleted Messages. “How ‘forgotten’ are your deleted internet posts anyway? That question has come under renewed scrutiny this week thanks to a new lawsuit filed by a fired Meta employee who claims the company set up a “protocol” to pull up certain users’ deleted posts and hand them over to law enforcement. If the former employee’s claims ring true, the practice could call into question Meta’s previous communications about how it accesses certain user data.”
How-To Geek: The Best Free Ways to Send Encrypted Email and Secure Messages
How-To Geek: The Best Free Ways to Send Encrypted Email and Secure Messages. “The Internet makes it easier than ever to communicate with others. Within seconds, you can be chatting with someone on the other side of the planet. But what if you want to communicate or send files privately? You need to make sure that you’re using encryption.”
Popular Science: You might be missing DMs on social media. Here’s how to fix it.
Popular Science: You might be missing DMs on social media. Here’s how to fix it.. “Social media can be a bit of a messaging mess, with DMs sliding in from anybody and everybody to make your account feel like the world’s worst suggestion box. Tech companies know that, so they’ve armed a lot of their apps with the ability to automatically filter out communications that don’t seem to be from people you know. By moving these messages to a ‘hidden’ inbox, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram aim to prevent you from getting overwhelmed with random messages.”
The Conversation: Ukraine’s information war is winning hearts and minds in the West
The Conversation: Ukraine’s information war is winning hearts and minds in the West. “As a scholar of armed conflict and security, I also find a compelling explanation for why the West is so focused on Ukraine in the Ukrainian government’s ability to provide information about the war in a way that appeals to Western sensibilities.”