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Amnesty International just released a report detailing which messaging services are secure and which are not, and some did not come out looking good. Skype and Snapchat, in particular, got lambasted by the report due to their tendency to not encrypt messages. The report was very kind to WhatsApp, however, by counting it as the most secure messaging service right now.
Amnesty International considers digital message encryption to be a human right, Slate reports, because of its impact on communications between activists as well as journalists. Among the biggest concerns that the group expressed regarding unencrypted messages include threats from cyber criminals and dictatorial government regimes that constantly spy on their citizens. As a result, activists or journalists who send messages via messaging apps are always at risk.
The report that the human rights group made ranked 11 of the biggest messaging services that are available to the wider public right now, The Huffington Post reports. These included Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger apps, Apple’s iMessage and Facetime, and Snapchat.
With a high score of 73 out of 100, WhatsApp got ranked the highest in terms of encryption security. This is largely because of the app’s tendency to inform users when end-to-end encryption is not in effect during a particular conversation, which enables users to decide whether they want to proceed or not.
On the other side of the spectrum, the worst performers are Skype and Snapchat in terms of global usage, with overall scores of 40 and 26 respectively out of 100. The only messaging services to perform worse are QQ and WECHAT, which are properties of China-based TenCent and are notorious for giving the Chinese government open access.
The most notable problems attributed to Snapchat is the fact that it employs no end-to-end encryption whatsoever. Sure, the images and videos do disappear after some time, but they can still be saved through other means.
