Privacy

If Signal is backdoored, then ALL encryption on the internet is backdoored.

This announcement was targeted towards government employees who are currently using sms or ss7 infrastructure for making voice calls. It's basically telling them that if they use those services, China can tap the calls and read the text messages. We've known the US government has been doing it since the Snowden leaks, but you gotta assume that if the US govt can do it, so can foreign nation states.

Relax on this conspiracy. Continue using your end-to-end encryption apps until there is some actual evidence that it has been broken. Signal is a solid choice, but there are also some great alternatives out there too.

Just stop using ss7 and sms, for the love of all that is holy.

I thought one official with the FBI just recommended using messaging with end-to-end encryption, not one specific protocol; not the whole government.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/us-recommends-encrypted-messaging-as-chinese-hackers-linger-in-telecom-networks/

(I also recommend it but for more acute reasons, like the US also spying on reproductive health of people using American telecom systems.)

I prefer Threema over Signal, but I do not think the US government recommending an app means that they have it backdoored. The US government needs to protect its own communications as well and while the left hand may be thinking encryption is bad for law enforcement the right have is thinking encryption is good for national security.

So... I don't think there's some larger conspiracy, just the normal government dissonance.