Skip to Content

Simple Text-Message Encryption Tool Broadens Base

It took a torrent of NSA revelations to spur major new technology efforts to make Internet communications more private and secure.
December 11, 2013

For years, Internet users understood they had to live with a certain tradeoff: to enjoy the many benefits of an open network–one built originally for trusted researchers–they had to give up some security and privacy.  But with the revelations from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden about massive online surveillance, users are starting to see that, perhaps, much more can be done to protect them.

The latest development is a new effort to make it easy for far more people to encrypt their text messages.   Open-source technology from Whisper Systems takes care of everything, with no special user action required, as long as the recipient also has the technology on her phone.  In a new effort to expand the user base, the technology will be baked into a new release of CyanogenMod, an open source Android firmware distribution that has about ten million users.  

We’ve recently seen members of the Internet Engineering Task Force–that loosely organized band of engineers who keep the Internet’s protocols updated and improved–ask Tor, the online anonymity technology, to consider becoming an Internet standard (see “Group Thinks Anonymity Should be Baked Into the Internet Itself”).  Companies like Google and Yahoo have started encrypting more of their traffic between data centers (see “NSA Takes Huge Amounts of Data From Google and Yahoo”). And there’s a new tool being built to give you insight into what the NSA can learn by looking at the logs of your texting and calling activity (see  ”Call-Log App Aims to Reverse Engineer NSA Surveillance”).   

Just as we eventually got  catalytic converters, vehicle airbags, and locked cockpit doors, we’re now starting to get a more secure and private Internet, too.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build

“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”

Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives

The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.

Learning to code isn’t enough

Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.

Deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has quit Google

Hinton will be speaking at EmTech Digital on Wednesday.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.