Signal is one of a number of relatively simple tools that can be used to help keep conversations secure.Signal is designed to never collect or store any sensitive information. Signal messages and calls cannot be accessed by Signal or other third parties because they are always end-to-end encrypted, private, and secure.
There are a number of tech platforms that advertise encryption services for privacy — including iMessage and WhatsApp — but data security experts largely agree that Signal is the gold standard.
Signal looks like a regular messaging app for texting and making phone calls. But it’s owned by a non-profit, not a private company, and the app is end-to-end encrypted by default. That means that the content of a conversation is scrambled when it’s traveling between the sender and receiver, so no one except the parties to the conversation can see it.
“If you show up with a warrant or a subpoena (to Signal), they have almost nothing about you that they can hand over,” said Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. On non-encrypted messaging apps, an employer or law enforcement could potentially force a platform to hand over a user’s conversations via subpoena.
End-to-end encryption itself isn’t unique among messaging apps, but certain apps that offer encryption, like WhatsApp, may still have access to non-encrypted contacts and other accounts you’ve messaged, whereas Signal’s builders can’t see that information, according to Gillmor.
And whether you use Signal or WhatsApp, experts advise turning on the “disappearing messages” feature that allows users to auto-delete conversations after a set period of time — hours, or days, depending on what a user selects — so that the conversations might not be accessible even if someone else got their hands on a user’s phone.
