2023-04-13
It is "well-known" that the "security services" can snoop on more or less whatever communications are made via your mobile phone. And/or PC.
How do we know this? We may not be able to prove it in a court of law, but in any case it's a reasonable assumption, given the alleged history of the security services whose job it is to spy on people.
Don't think that they would respect the law either.
So a comms scheme that enables peer-to-peer traffic and that promises to make it snoop-proof is attractive. This product as featured by USA Watchdog looks very attractive at first sight ... but don't kid yourself that it really is the full answer - that would almost certainly require a complete replacement operating system (through which any app would need to send and receive messages). Even if your O/S doesn't snoop individual packets, it would only be a matter of time before an update added that feature. The "security services" no doubt have unlimited money for such developments.
And don't forget all the other apps that you have installed alongside these messaging apps ... are you going to remove all of them as well?!
The only safe course is to assume that "they" can read your phone 100%.
Having said all that, I don't doubt that this app would make it a good deal trickier for "them" to get up to all the tricks they currently pull with impunity. It may well slow "them" down a bit - whether that's worth the major phone reorganisation that is implied by moving all your communications across to this product is for you to decide.
For comms that can't easily be routinely snooped, hand-written and hand-delivered snail mail may still be best! (Expect snail-mail too to be discontinued some time soon, along with real food and actual heating)
Still, full marks to Tanner for applying himself to the task - all efforts to support privacy in the oncoming techno-world are certainly valuable just now, and the technology should provide a foundation for further development.
(17 minutes)
