SECURE MESSAGING SCORECARD

Electronic Freedom Foundation ^ | November 5, 2014 at 6:00 am | EFF Staff

[Swordmaker]

Which apps and tools actually keep your messages safe?

In the face of widespread Internet surveillance, we need a secure and practical means of talking to each other from our phones and computers. Many companies offer “secure messaging” products—but are these systems actually secure? We decided to find out, in the first phase of a new EFF Campaign for Secure & Usable Crypto.

This scorecard represents only the first phase of the campaign. In later phases, we are planning to offer closer examinations of the usability and security of the tools that score the highest here. As such, the results in the scorecard below should not be read as endorsements of individual tools or guarantees of their security; they are merely indications that the projects are on the right track.

Check on the EFF Site to see the list of ratings of popular and not-so-popular messaging services ratings:

[Swordmaker]

Apple's iMessage and FaceTime are rated as the most secure mass-marketed messaging systems. . .

Services Selected from EFF's Ratings

I find it amusing that EFF claims you can't verify your contact's identity with Apple's FaceTime. . . when you can see them talking to you. . . or hear their voice if you don't have video available.

Note, there are services that have ALL green circles listed for both Apple Macs and Windows. . . but they are not commercial Mass-Marketed services. No commercial service can have all green because of the necessity to have their code kept proprietary. It could not be allowed to be open for "independent review." If you believe that "independent review" enhances security of your messaging, choose one of those services. If not, then use one of these.

[Swordmaker]

Apple FaceTime and iMessaging rated as the most secure mass-marketed messaging service by Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF). . . there are more secure, non-mass-market messaging apps by their criteria, but Apple's are tops in the commercial range.— PING!

Check out the list on the EFF site and find a messaging app that suits you. Either Mac or Windows.

Apple Messaging Security Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Mark17]

I use face time quite a bit. I don’t know about all this technical stuff you are talking about, but of all the different systems I have used, face time and Viber were the easiest to use. I don’t know how secure Viber is, but I like it too.

[Swordmaker]

I use face time quite a bit. I don’t know about all this technical stuff you are talking about, but of all the different systems I have used, face time and Viber were the easiest to use. I don’t know how secure Viber is, but I like it too.

According to EFF, Viber ain't so hot in the security department. One green circle. They DO encrypt in transit, which is their sole positive, but they can decrypt what you send and read it, archives are unencrypted, and the security isn't properly documented, all bad things.

[Loud Mime]

Yahoo’s the bomb!

[NewHampshireDuo]

Ones I’ve used regularly are GPG (Open PGP), Cryptocat and Retroshare.