{"id":273,"date":"2015-05-13T04:26:06","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T04:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/?p=273"},"modified":"2024-12-23T07:59:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T07:59:54","slug":"google-admits-hangouts-doesnt-use-end-to-end-encryption-opening-the-door-for-government-wiretaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/google-admits-hangouts-doesnt-use-end-to-end-encryption-opening-the-door-for-government-wiretaps-273\/","title":{"rendered":"Google admits Hangouts doesn&#8217;t use end-to-end encryption, opening the door for government wiretaps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Snap2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-274 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Snap2.jpg\" alt=\"Google admits Hangouts doesn't use end-to-end encryption, opening the door for government wiretaps\" width=\"618\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Snap2.jpg 618w, https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Snap2-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Snap2-2x1.jpg 2w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re\u00a0really\u00a0worried the government may be keeping tabs on your conversations, then you\u2019d best avoid Hangouts.<\/p>\n<p>According to Motherboard, a Google representative confirmed that Hangouts conversations are only encrypted \u201cin transit,\u201d meaning after the message arrives at the intended recipient Google could access it if forced to do so by a government wiretap.<\/p>\n<p>The question arose from a Reddit AMA with two senior members of Google\u2019s public policy and legal team. An\u00a0ACLU representative pinned them down about encryption, but wasn\u2019t able to get them to detail if all messages were encrypted from end-to-end.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Salgado, Google\u2019s director for law enforcement and information security, and David Lieber, the senior privacy policy counsel, would only confirm the in-transit encryption. Salgado reaffirmed the government\u2019s prerogative to order such surveillance: \u201cThere are legal authorities that allow the government to wiretap communications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In reality, such wiretaps are rare. Google\u2019s\u00a0transparency report details only\u00a0seven wiretap orders for nine accounts in the first half of 2014, the most recent data available because the U.S. government requires a six-month waiting period.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why this matters:<\/strong> Apple has touted the privacy of iMessage as another advantage to the security conscious over Android. Other messaging platforms, like the Mark Cuban-backed\u00a0Cyber Dust, also promise secrecy. Google may not see this extra step as necessary until a backlash arises from those who want more privacy from their Hangouts conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re\u00a0really\u00a0worried the government may be keeping tabs on your conversations, then you\u2019d best avoid Hangouts. According to Motherboard, a Google representative confirmed that Hangouts conversations are only encrypted \u201cin transit,\u201d meaning after the message arrives at the intended recipient Google could access it if forced to do so by a government wiretap. The question &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/google-admits-hangouts-doesnt-use-end-to-end-encryption-opening-the-door-for-government-wiretaps-273\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Google admits Hangouts doesn&#8217;t use end-to-end encryption, opening the door for government wiretaps<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[118,61,117],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-end-to-end-encryption","tag-google","tag-hangouts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}