Edward Joseph Snowden is a security specialist and the world’s foremost experts on privacy issues, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee and former contractor for the United States government.
For all those who want to try Google Allo, the new app like Whatsapp, Snowden says don’t use.
Free for download today: Google Mail, Google Maps, and Google Surveillance. That’s #Allo. Don’t use Allo. https://t.co/EdPRC0G7Py
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 21, 2016
Snowden says that the new app Google Allo “records every message you ever send and makes it available to police upon request.”
Snowden tweets on 21st Sept “By default, it is less safe than WhatsApp, which makes dangerous for non-experts.”
By default, it is less safe than @WhatsApp, which makes dangerous for non-experts. https://t.co/v1xy8VffC4
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 21, 2016
Allo app prior to its launch has already been into controversies related to its terms and privacy issues. In May, original plans was to have Allo an end to end encryption and that conversations would only be stored temporarily. But when Allo was released this week, end to end encryption was not enabled by default and conversations of all user’s are stored indefinitely. The App does give a option to end to end encryption in Incognito Mode but this needs to be enabled it specifically. Unfortunately, going into Incognito Mode means that you wont be able to access most features of the App.
However, spokesperson for Google said: “We’ve given users transparency and control over their data in Google Allo. And our approach is simple – your chat history is saved for you until you choose to delete it.
“You can delete single messages or entire conversations in Allo. We also provide the option to chat in Incognito mode, where messages are end-to-end encrypted and you can set a timer to automatically delete messages for your device and the person you’re chatting with’s device at a set time.”
Featured image: Via
