In the near future . . .
News just in: Signal acquired by Facebook, Inc.
The crew at Open Whisper Systems has announced Signal, an app offering encrypted voice calls between iPhones. The open source group has been working on its projects ever since Whisper Systems, co-founded by Moxie Marlinspike, was acquired by Twitter in 2011 – an acquisition that took its Redphone Android project offline, amid …
"And there's the rub, your friends not only need the app, they need an iPhone, really why bother."
The only thing you're rubbing is yourself. That's the only explanation I can think of for you being so blind that you can't even read the article or the comments.
The spooks will love this, hell they may even be secretly supporting it as they will have ways of circumventing the encryption - somehow.
Think of the current problem their current slurp all approach means considerable post processing of millions of calls. With "Signal" encryption in place all they have to do is focus on encrypted calls and use their vast computing power to decrypt those - as those calls will be the most suspicious (in the eyes of the spooks)
And they have a signed letter and supporting documention from Apple assuring them that when an App like theirs accesses the microphone audio signal, that no other application - nor the OS itself - can access the same raw (as yet unencrypted) digitized audio signal emerging from the A/D stage within the chipset. Right? The letter and a complete analysis of the internal firewalls would lead to formal security certification. Right?
No? .: Entire Concept = FAIL.
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"No? .: Entire Concept = FAIL"
My thoughts as well. I sometimes use a PGP encrypted Blackberry (1.) and the whole signal is encrypted, emails encrypted on server and deleted after downloaded it is mil spec and works a treat. Anything that works as an app is an approximation of encryption and likely does not have the ability to totally secure its environment.
1. A lot of us have legitimate reasons to use encryption.