In the last few years phones and apps have been touting themselves as better than other phones/services because their messaging has end-to-end encryption, or some other variant of secure messaging. Why do we care?
Edit: Thanks for the answers, everyone!
In: 140
To answer the original question.
Many people think that messages go from my phone to your phone in a closed tube. But, in fact every wireless communication is a shout in the open air. Our devices are shouting all the time in all directions.
If you are on WiFi, the shout is picked up by a listener device nearby, which is your WiFi router. Then it forwards the message via cable. Every other device in the area can also hear the shout, they just don’t care. On the other end the other persons WiFi also shouts out the message, and the listener device is the target phone. Again, in fact every other WiFi devices hear the message.
If you are on mobile data, like 4g or something, the shout is even louder so it can reach the mobile tower. And it goes every direction.
The reason why normally the devices disregard the messages not meant to them, going back and forth, is that they are *programmed* to do so by good guys. Bad guys can totally program listener devices, even a simple phone, to catch messages.
And why do we care? Because we send a lot of sensitive information. A simple birthday wish in SMS tells everyone who listens that this person has birthday. Birthday is used as one of the identification questions over telephone, because it’s assumed not to be known by everyone. And I didn’t even mention oppressive political systems listening to your opinions.
Do yes, that’s why we care.
You care because it guarantees the privacy of your communications. Including from the owner of the app you’re using.
When you send a letter, old type letter, would you feel your privacy has been violated if the mail company opens it, does whatever with it and then wraps it again in the same envelope with no way of knowing what happened?
End to end encryption is used to prevent this from happening but with electronic messages, from your end to the receivers end. It”s a way of making your letter only readable by the receiver and making the envelope tamper proof do you can now someone tried something bad to the letter. Same for the messages you receive
Let’s take WhatsApp as example but anything else would do. Your messages travel through the cell phone networks, other Internet backbones, they’re handled by computers owned by WhatsApp and stored there. In any of these places somebody can try to steal, read, tamper or interfere with your messages and encryption is there to prevent even WhatsApp from knowing what your message’s are.
Simple, because you don’t want anyone except for the person you intend the “message” to to be able to read it.
Sure, you probably don’t care if someone else is able to read most of your messages, but some of them you might and it’s just easier to encrypt all of your messages as opposed to having the users select to encrypt individual messages, because what if they forget? There is no downside from the user’s point of view to encrypting the message, so there is no reason to not do it by default.
Note: Message in this context means any exchange of information/communication.
Okay, imagine you have a super secret message that you want to send to your friend. But you don’t want anyone else to know what’s inside the message, like a secret code just for you two. End-to-end encryption is like putting that message inside a magic lockbox that only you and your friend have keys to.
This lockbox is special because even if someone tries to peek inside while the message is on its way from you to your friend, they can’t understand it because it’s all scrambled up. Only when it reaches your friend’s special key can it unscramble and become readable again. This way, no one else, not even the people who help deliver the message, can read what’s inside.
End-to-end encryption is important because it helps keep our private stuff, like messages, pictures, and secrets, safe from anyone who might try to snoop around. It’s like having a secret code that only you and your friend know, so your things stay just between you two.
But sometimes, there are situations where we might not need this super secret protection. Like when we’re posting something public on social media, we’re okay with many people seeing it. So, for those things, we might not need the magic lockbox. But for stuff we want to keep really private, like personal messages, that’s when the magic lockbox of end-to-end encryption comes in handy!
For the same reason you may wanna have a private conversation with someone in a different room, instead of yelling across the dinner table for everyone to hear
Think of end to end encryption like you putting a letter into an envelope. You then give it to someone to send to another person.
It stops people from seeing the message before it is encrypted because u don’t know if the person who us sending the letter is a bad actor.
U are not reliant on someone acting in good faith.
nerds like their secret handshakes. one of my first code was a blank text to make sure the coast was clear. i can’t tell you the only proper response to it
Who can read your encrypted message?
If a provider says they encrypt your data, you generally assume that “encrypted” means that nobody can read it except the recipient.
But that’s NOT what encryption means, encryption usually means that _someone_ can’t read your data, but without more details, you don’t really have any assurances at all. And providers gleefully abuse the term to give you false expectations about their services, lying by omission to hide their bad practices.
The idea that nobody can read the message except for the recipient is called end-to-end encryption. It’s still encryption, but with the extra caveat saying exactly who can read it.
As consumers get wise to provider shenanigans, this term is getting more visible and popular.
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