APPLE fans have received fresh warning over a little-known system that means your text messages aren't as private as you think they are.
It's all because Apple can be stingy with its end-to-end encrypting of conversations had through its messages app.
End-to-end encrypted technology scrambles messages and any other data sent between phones into long strings of numbers that can't be decoded by anyone – including hackers, app companies or the police.
WhatsApp prizes itself on encrypting all of its data (so much so, that it is currently butting heads with the UK government over it).
But Apple's native messaging service isn't quite the same.
If you use Apple’s in-built app, iMessages that you send and receive are only end-to-end encrypted if everyone else in the chat is using that app.
Here's a simple way of knowing:
If the text you see is in a blue bubble, the contents of message is end-to-end encrypted for everyone in the chat.
This means that even Apple's overlords couldn't read those texts – or the government.
However, if the message appears in a green bubble – it is not encrypted, and therefore is not privy to the same kind of security.
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So, even if three out of four people in a group chat are speaking in blue bubbles, but there is one who is coming up green – no one's texts are end-to-end encrypted.
Each mobile phone provider might choose to save every word of your communications, the Washington Post warned.
In turn, it's possible these messages could then be passed onto to police with valid legal orders, or even lost to hackers.
This isn't an iPhone vs Android issue either.
Google’s Android chat app has the very same encryption loophole.
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