by Shannon Flynn at Make Use Of
Data privacy is a tricky thing. A lot of messaging apps claim to protect your privacy against criminals and corporations, but what about the government? You may see news about digital investigations and ask yourself: “can the FBI use my data?”
An FBI report that recently went public offers some answers. The document, originally from January 2021, details what kinds of data the FBI can legally obtain from various messaging apps. How the FBI can track you makes some of these apps seem less secure than they originally appeared.
What the FBI Can See
The FBI document goes over nine popular messaging apps: iMessage, Line, Signal, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WeChat, WhatsApp, and Wickr. How the FBI can use your data varies across each app. Here’s a rundown of what they can access from each.
iMessage
iMessage is one of the least secure services as far as what the FBI can see. It can see limited message content, basic user information, contacts, date and time info, encryption keys, sender and receiver information, and even your iCloud backups. Since iCloud stores non-encrypted message backups by default, that gives the FBI access to a lot of content.
Line
The FBI can also access limited message content on Line. Usage information and user info like names, phone numbers, and email addresses are also potentially accessible.
Signal
Compared to other apps, the FBI can’t obtain much from Signal. It can’t get any message content, so what you say on the app remains private. All the FBI can see is the last date you connected to the service and when you registered for it.
Telegram
Telegram is also highly secure. The FBI can’t obtain any message content or contact information. Telegram may give them IP addresses and phone numbers, but only for confirmed terrorist investigations.
Threema
Threema, which recently gained attention as the only authorized messaging service for the Swiss military, is relatively private as it is not subject to the US Cloud Act, but not as much as some may expect. The FBI can see phone numbers and email addresses, but only if you provide them, some usage data, and login dates. Message content is off-limits.
Viber
While Viber also doesn’t give the FBI access to message content, it’s not the most secure option. Account registration data, IP addresses, time and date info, and messages’ timestamp, data, source, and destination are all accessible.
WeChat is more secure for users in China than people in other countries. The FBI can access names, numbers, email addresses, and IP addresses for non-China accounts but not for those within the country. Message content is private for all users.
WhatsApp is surprisingly not secure, giving the FBI limited message content access, contacts, message sources and destinations, and information like blocked users. Unencrypted iPhone backups may make even more data available.
Wickr
Wickr offers the FBI a considerable amount of information. It can see time and date info, device info, how many addresses and phone numbers are connected to an account, account setting changes, and total message numbers.