RCS is not more private and secure than texting according to the FBI

Avoid to use RCS! It is not what it seems and it is insecure and does
not respect your privacy. Elements that could make is safer are
proprietary Google stuff.

This is an advice from the FBI.


By Jerry Hildenbrand
published 3 days ago

https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/fbi-warns-about-ios-android-messaging-security-threat-and-im-not-surprised?

Texting still isn't safe.

Normally, I'm quick to point out all the ways that Google shows a lack
of respect for users inside its ecosystem. That's part of my job; if a
Google exec scratches his or her butt, I need to see how it affects
Google's portfolio and us since we're the ones using these products.

That means I rarely worry about what other companies, like Apple, do to
their users. This time is different because Apple's disdain for
consumers and lack of cooperation puts us all at risk, according to the
FBI, which usually knows what it is doing.

I'm talking about RCS. Of course, I'm talking about RCS because it's
been at least a month since I had to talk about RCS.

Here's the deal: if you use an iPhone and message someone else who is
using an iPhone, you're good. If you use an Android phone and message
someone else using an Android phone, you're good, too. The problem is
when an iPhone user messages an Android user or an Android user messages
an iPhone user.

Those messages, using the default messages app built into the phone, are
no more secure than the old way of sending a text was. Apple did
incorporate RCS messaging into iMessage, but it did it in a way that's
not secure and didn't work with Google to sort it out.

This happened because of RCS itself. The tech, in its current form,
doesn't support any sort of encryption yet. It's being worked on, but if
you implement RCS using only the current open standards, messages are no
safer than they used to be.

On the other hand, Google does offer encrypted RCS messaging — but only
between two Android phones or the Chrome browser tied to an Android
phone. It added this itself because RCS has no encryption method in place.

Since about 80% of people worldwide who use a smartphone are using an
Android smartphone, this was one of those times when Google did the
right thing. Apple didn't. Apple offers iPhone users who talk to other
iPhone users encryption and tells everyone else to just buy an iPhone.

The FBI piping in to let everyone know there is a problem isn't
unexpected. In fact, it's the opposite, and I'm surprised it took so
long. I assumed exploits would pop up during the first week, just like
spam and phishing messages supposedly from the post office did. You
(probably) aren't special, and nobody is actively trying to steal your
identity and hack your credit cards; they're just trying to steal
everyone's identity and get everyone's credit card info. Casting a huge
net is an easy way to scam regular people out of millions each year.

Apple and Google could have, and should have, prevented this. Instead,
Google was worried about tossing barbs at Apple and then taking a
victory lap even when it didn't really get what it was demanding.
Meanwhile, Apple trudged along and did nothing until China said they had
to add RCS capabilities. Apple will always try to appease China when
it's easy to do it, just like Google would. Neither side cared about
working together to help consumers like us because we were going to buy
their shit anyway. 💰🐄

So what should you do? If you live outside the U.S. or Canada, you
probably don't have to do anything because you likely don't even use
Google Messages or iMessage. People here use them because texts are
free, and, well, we just do.

If you use either, you should stop and switch to a secure and encrypted
platform like the FBI says. There are plenty, but I'm partial to Signal
because the people behind it only care about making a secure messaging
service; they want to hook you on their product by making it great and
not tying it to another service or looking to sell it off to Meta.

That's easier said than done. You could go through all of your contacts
and ask them to switch to another platform, but they're not going to do
it. They don't think they need to do it because they might not have
thousands in the bank sitting around ripe for the taking, or they don't
think they have anything to hide.

All you really can do is refuse to send any information through Google
Messages or iMessage that you don't want the world to read and wish the
companies that made these things actually cared about their users.


--
"Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)