Secure chat rooms, whether they exist, and why is it important need

What's happening

All major corporations and not cooperate with law enforcement authorities, submitting to the laws of the countries in which they operate. Google, Apple, Facebook, Skype, WhatsApp, Viber and many other social networks and messengers shared with the authorities a number of user data. Someone merges more some less, but the bitter truth is that everyone is doing it.

Demonstration freedom fighters without batting an eye will be given all of your secrets. For example, the creators of the popular messenger Viber, which, according to Russian law, obliged to move the server to the territory of the Russian Federation, met the requirements of the authorities at the end of last year. Officially, such a step to explain the need for the storage of personal data on servers within the country, but we all know the real motives: it is the desire to intelligence services access to communications.

By "better" in this case refers to something that does not even need to interact with the cellular network operators for surveillance: all the necessary tools are available to the relevant authorities. The same applies to WhatsApp, Skype and other instant messengers, not to mention the usual SMS. Furthermore, read your correspondence can not only special services, but also competitors, enemies and generally anyone who use the services of specialized services. They are inexpensive and easy to Google on demand "printing SMS."

When the police can not get the data they need with the available leverage, they go to drastic measures. Literally, in early March for refusing to cooperate with police in Brazil He was arrested Vice President of the Latin American branch of Facebook. The subject of the dispute was the information about the users of the social network allegedly involved in drug trafficking.

In December 2015, the first Brazilian court has blocked the country WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) after refusing to provide information on the correspondence of the alleged perpetrators. In the end, everyone lost: the police shut down the nearly 100 million domestic users, prompting a strong reaction in social networks and the indignation of the head of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg).

Even more revealing in the fight for the integrity of personal data is a standoff Apple and the FBI, which has not yet received its isolation. Intelligence agencies say the prevention of acts of terrorism and national security, not wanting to admit that in this way crime is not to win. But the main Apple counsel at a hearing in Congress said that, even if the intelligence services have the opportunity to crack any iPhone, criminals in any case would have found ways to secret communication, and brought as an example the messenger Telegram.

Against a breakage there is reception

Apple spokesman rights: ways protected correspondence, there are many and they are not invented yesterday. The brainchild of Paul Durov Telegram first comes to mind because of its popularity and reputation of unbreakable: More purposes back in 2013, award 200 000 dollars for breaking the encrypted correspondence Telegram until now no one has received.

This invulnerability is explained by the principle of protected messenger Telegram in general and in particular. In the latter used a specially designed MTProto protocol and double-layer encryption with 256-bit AES-key: they provide high speed and reliability. And yet in the Telegram, besides the usual chat, there is so-called secret (Secret Chats). In their correspondence is encrypted without the participation of the server, and all messages are sent directly from the sender's device to the device of the recipient (peer-to-peer). Even if we assume that the data will be able to intercept, decrypt them without keys stored on the devices of participants of conversation, it would be impossible.

Another advantage of P2P networks, the transmission is that the work of the messenger can not be blocked when no servers to block simply nothing.

The government of authoritarian countries are often guilty locks unwanted services. For example, everyone knows about the blocked almost all of China's Facebook site. In October of last year due to the failure to provide an opportunity to spy on users Telegram It appeared at first partially and then completely blocked in Iran. To avoid such situations, you can use P2P-communication, to realize that Pavel Durov promised after the incident.

@emmanuelksvz We are working on a P2P solution that will make the service unblockable. It'll take some time.

- Pavel Durov (@durov) October 20, 2015

A similar approach is used in various messengers protected with end-to-end-encryption. key distribution method may differ, but the principle remains the same: the information is transferred directly from device to device without intermediate servers.

Something like that may soon appear in the Facebook Messenger. edition of The Information Journalists unearthed in iOS-application code rather interesting comments. They point to a kind of analogue of Apple Pay, which allows paying for goods and send money to users, as well as accompanying this secret chat functionality. About the way of the realization of such conversations is difficult to judge: Facebook can go Telegram way and implement encryption, and can simply add the ability to hide individual correspondence and contacts. In any case, even if the decision is made in favor of the first option, to attract users and prove to them that secret chat in Messenger, are really safe, would be not so easy.

How to be

Those for whom the reliability of communication channel plays an important role, it is worth paying attention to the protected messengers with said encryption. They will be useful not only paranoid, but to all those involved in the business and has access to any more or less important information, not intended for prying eyes. Making available a huge number, but we will not see them all, and will focus on the three most convenient.

Secret chats Telegram

Due to the wide spread of the secret messenger chats Telegram It is an ideal one. They ensure the safety of the information in question, have a self-destruct feature posts (including photos and files) after a certain time and do not allow to send correspondence to others. For greater security, a single user can create multiple conversations and discuss them in a variety of topics.

Create a secret chat simple: Hit the icon New Message → New Secret Chat and select the desired contact. Start a conversation will be as soon as the person will appear on the web. Due to lack of intermediate servers send a message can not be offline. In this case, all unsent messages are stored only on your device. Understand that a secret chat, rather than the usual, you can lock icon next to the contact name.

Download Telegram (free) →

Confide

Unlike Telegram, Confide initially confined under maximum security. Messenger is also quite popular in its niche, free and has clients for all desktop and mobile platforms. Confide uses end-to-end-encryption and stores the message anywhere except the sender and receiver devices. Moreover, not even the messenger displays the text of the entire message, and breaks it down into blocks and shows in parts when the cursor or finger touch. Read messages are immediately destroyed. Those who want to save the contents of the screen with the help of screenshots, will be waiting for the failure: the text is immediately deleted and the sender receives a notification of the failed attempt of the interlocutor.

Confide in your account is tied to email, after registration, you can connect your social networks and allow access to the terminals. If someone you know is an application installed, you can safely correspond, send photos and documents.

Download Confide (free) →

Threema

And this app for the truly paranoid. It is paid, not so easy, is less user-friendly interface, but even more on safety and rotated only works with direct encryption. There is not used a phone number or email. To work Threema need a pair of keys that you yourself will generate when you first start: one of them is private and stored on your device, the other - the public and sent to your friend. Then you assign an ID on which you can find. Add contact and can be via email or phone (if the person is tied to their account), as well as by scanning a QR-code in person (this is the safest option).

Threema can exchange not only text messages but also photos, videos, documents and geo. There are apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Download Threema (from 129 rubles) →

Signal

Signal He recommends himself Edward Snowden (Edward Snowden), which in itself already means something. Like the previous ones, this app uses the through encryption, but differs in that, in addition to sending text messages, photos and files, also supports voice calls. Signal tied to your phone number and allows you to securely communicate with contacts from your phone book. On Android it can even make the default application for making calls and sending messages. Recently Signal is now available on the desktop in the form of Chrome-applications.

Download Signal →

---

What do you think about the protected messengers: whether to move to them or is it only for the paranoid? Tell us whether you are using a secure chat rooms, and if so, how and why is preferred.