‘Private’ messaging not so private

Many messaging apps are not as private and secure as people think. Every message sent could be read by service providers, advertisers and other organisations - an invasion of people's privacy rights.

InternetNZ’s 2016 research into the thoughts and attitudes of Kiwis toward the Internet, shows that 72% of Kiwis are concerned about security of personal data and 67% are concerned about threats to their privacy.

To combat privacy threats, InternetNZ has released a series of resources to help New Zealanders keep their messages free from prying eyes.

The resources point to Signal, WhatsApp and ‘secret conversations’ in Facebook Messenger as channels of communication that have a higher level of privacy due to the use of encryption.

“As part of your 2017 New Year’s resolutions, you should be thinking about what you can do to keep your personal information private. By using messaging apps with encryption you can claim your privacy and make your conversations genuinely private,” says Jordan Carter, Chief Executive of InternetNZ.

“Privacy is a basic human right and we want to see people taking control and securing their personal conversations.”  

Signal and WhatsApp are both automatically encrypted while secret conversations in Facebook Messenger is an opt in service. All three apps are available on both Android and iOS.

Visit www.internetnz.nz/myprivacy to view these resources and find out more.

ENDS