An official FBI document dated January 2021, obtained by the American association “Property of People” through the Freedom of Information Act.
This document summarizes the possibilities for legal access to data from nine instant messaging services: iMessage, Line, Signal, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WeChat, WhatsApp and Wickr. For each software, different judicial methods are explored, such as subpoena, search warrant, active collection of communications metadata (“Pen Register”) or connection data retention law (“18 USC§2703”). Here, in essence, is the information the FBI says it can retrieve:
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Apple iMessage: basic subscriber data; in the case of an iPhone user, investigators may be able to get their hands on message content if the user uses iCloud to synchronize iMessage messages or to back up data on their phone.
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Line: account data (image, username, e-mail address, phone number, Line ID, creation date, usage data, etc.); if the user has not activated end-to-end encryption, investigators can retrieve the texts of exchanges over a seven-day period, but not other data (audio, video, images, location).
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Signal: date and time of account creation and date of last connection.
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Telegram: IP address and phone number for investigations into confirmed terrorists, otherwise nothing.
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Threema: cryptographic fingerprint of phone number and e-mail address, push service tokens if used, public key, account creation date, last connection date.
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Viber: account data and IP address used to create the account; investigators can also access message history (date, time, source, destination).
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WeChat: basic data such as name, phone number, e-mail and IP address, but only for non-Chinese users.
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WhatsApp: the targeted person’s basic data, address book and contacts who have the targeted person in their address book; it is possible to collect message metadata in real time (“Pen Register”); message content can be retrieved via iCloud backups.
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Wickr: Date and time of account creation, types of terminal on which the application is installed, date of last connection, number of messages exchanged, external identifiers associated with the account (e-mail addresses, telephone numbers), avatar image, data linked to adding or deleting.
TL;DR Signal is the messaging system that provides the least information to investigators.
I stopped using Signal after they said no alternate clients, then got into crypto, then introduce a proprietary shim to their stack.
I plan on someday actually running my own Matrix server for myself and family, right now I’m on Matrix.org though. At this point I don’t know how folks recommend Signal over Matrix. There are a lot of clients, so maybe the choice of clients is too confusing? IDK.
But anyone saying Matrix isn’t easy enough for non-tech folks to understand, my sister, niece, even wife set up Element themselves on their phones without issue. My father and step-mother both use Element with us. I configured it but they know how to message and do video chat and things.
Thanks for sharing! I really want to get my family on Matrix now.
We have not been able to find a solid chat/video call app that the entire family (various ages and tech aptitude) can effectively use. We’ve been bouncing around to various apps since COVID lockdowns started. We had been using Slack for a while but the video calling in Slack is unusable now.
We do voice and video chat every week with my family and it seems to work incredibly well. No real issues with any of it.
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Keep in mind that op’s foia request is from 2021.
Edit - I’m misremembering. Disregard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_(protocol)
Fact check: the French govt did not create Matrix.
Matrix is an open protocol created in 2014, for an Israel-based private company.
In 2018 the french govt decided to use a verson of that protocol in their own chatting network.
Thanks, and apologies. I’ve edited out my idiocy. Misremembered, and was thinking of something else.
I stopped using signal when it was clear they don’t know what they’re doing with anything besides encryption and security. Literally every UI/UX change they made while I was using the app was a downgrade. When they decided to drop SMS, that was the last straw.
I just use google’s messenger, which has encryption and SMS. Exactly what I want. Heck if I know what data is recoverable for governments and non-government hackers.