Google Allo: Don’t use it, says Edward Snowden by Liam Tung.
From the post:
Google’s Allo messaging app and its Assistant bot have finally arrived, but Allo has been slammed for reneging on a promise that it would, by default, make it more difficult to spy on.
Because of the missing privacy feature, NSA-contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden’s first take of Allo after yesterday’s US launch is that it’s just a honeypot for surveillance.
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The main complaints are that security is off by default and that chat logs are stored until deleted by users.
Google made a conscious choice on both of those features.
Now is your opportunity to make a conscious choice about Allo. Goodbye!
Don’t be mis-led into thinking end-to-end encryption ends the danger from preserving chat logs.
Intelligence agencies have long argued knowing who calls who is more important than the content of phone calls. Same is true for chats.
Google has chosen a side other than consumers, that’s enough to avoid it whenever possible.