So in the new upcoming major feature update for IOS, Apple is adding RCS support in there messaging app. What are the privacy implications of adopting RCS?
Is there any other apps that have RCS support on Android other than Google’s own messaging app?
The reason for my asking is because I was considering migrating my relatives’ messaging app to a RCS supported one because they will probably most likely enjoy the extra bandwidth of RCS.
Note, they’re already using Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp for most of their conversations.
Just continue using Signal. Why change it to something else and worse?
If only Signal were the default messaging app!!!
Signal, being owned by a nonprofit has a bit more resistance to that than most.
That’s the main reason I recommend it over alternatives with similar technical capabilities, such as WhatsApp.
Any good app/product that becomes very popular will be inevitably acquired by an evil company at some point. That’s why the default cannot be good.
But don’t you just get tired of jumping through hoops for every little thing these days?
Big tech needs to stop being evil. There, problem solved, right…right…ha
Do you know that everything in the universe has a price so it stays balanced? Same goes to this. You either deal with it (spend effort) or switch to a worse (evil) option where you pay with your data (much more valuable thing) to get more consistency.
Not gonna happen. Even if you put highly moral or religious people on the management, someone will find a way to ruin it. The bigger the project gets, the bigger effort bad actors will be ok with taking to take over it. The xz vulnerability is the perfect example. The bad actor there spent like 2 years to get trust of the main developer.
The only company that can acquire Signal is another non-profit.
There’s also the government that can force them to add some PhotoDNA or backdoor related stuff, as well as give them some mandatory-to-note “suggestions”. It will be hard to hide it because it’s an open-source project but the server side is not and the government may just ban the app altogether.
No they can’t. Signal has and will pull out of countries before caving to that.
Still, a decentralized protocol, not a platform, would have a much easier time circumventing stupid laws like this, as well as censorship.
If you want to argue about their centralized nature, we can, and I will agree, but that’s not what we were discussing.
My family already uses signal as are default form of communication between each but the point that I forgot to add was for the 1% of conversation. Some of my family member have there own businesses that mostly use email but when we are in the field we use regular SMS/MMS/imessage for quick communication between “us” and the client. At least here we most only use plain SMS or iMessage if applicable is used because most people see messaging apps like Signal, WhatsApp and other third party apps for personal use only.
In Europe, businesses, especially small businesses often use WhatsApp, to the point of putting its logo next to their phone number on signs. I wonder what creates the perception where you are that messaging apps are for personal use, not business.
I’d be more interested to know what they think iMessage is, if not a messaging app…
It seems like at least some people view apps that come preinstalled on their phone differently from other apps, but I’m not sure why.
I think using the RCS can raise legal issues if Google/Apple collects the messages, especially if you’re in the EU. I don’t remember how RCS works and I heard it can be E2E encrypted but seeing the comments makes me less sure about the safety of using it in a business environment. SMS isn’t encrypted at all and easy to intercept but there’s less chance of it being automatically collected for marketing purposes.
Using apps is better tbh unless you make your own apps to create more bloat and fragmentation. Here where I live nobody uses SMS anymore.
Pretty much all RCS goes through Google servers. They control all the implementations, even in the cases where a carrier has implemented it themselves they likely use Google Jibe system.
If your speaking to someone over RCS you should expect Google to be involved. Even with apple implementing it on iPhone. iPhones are likely to default to iMessage between each other, so the other user is likely an android so messages are getting routed through Google. It’s likely apples decision was based on pressure from Google and the billions of dollars they give apple every year.
Google has repeatedly made attempts to make a messaging app that have failed. RCS is their chosen method to get access to app messaging metadata and it looks to be working. They are displacing text messaging and making it look like nothings changed.
They get more of your data, so there’s that.
Doesn’t look like a good place for business communication, especially if there’s some secrecy to it which is not a rare case.