WASHINGTON - Telegram, a popular encrypted messaging app, will allow users to cloak their telephone numbers to safeguard Hong Kong protesters against monitoring by Chinese authorities, according to a person with direct knowledge of the effort.
The update to Telegram, planned for release over the next few days, will allow protesters to block Chinese authorities from discovering their identities in the app's large group chats.
Thousands of Hong Kong protesters take their cues from more than 100 groups on Telegram. Protesters use encrypted apps like Telegram to mobilize swiftly through multiple group chats, with less risk of police infiltration, Reuters found in a report published earlier this month.
The groups are used to post everything from news on upcoming protests to tips on dousing tear gas canisters fired by the police to the identities of suspected undercover police and the access codes to buildings in Hong Kong where protesters can hide.
Protesters have grown concerned that Chinese authorities could use the movement's reliance on Telegram to monitor and arrest organizers. Telegram chat groups used to organize public protests are often accessible to anyone and participants use pseudonyms.
But a feature in Telegram's design may have allowed Chinese authorities to learn the real identities of users, according to a group of Hong Kong engineers who posted their finding on a online forum earlier this month.
Telegram allows users to search for other users by uploading phone numbers. This function allows a new user to quickly learn whether those in her phone's contact book are already using the app, the group said.
Protesters believe Chinese security officials have exploited the function by uploading large quantities of phone numbers.
The app automatically matches phone numbers with the user names in the group. Chinese authorities then only need to request the owners of the phone numbers from the local telecom service in order to learn the users' true identities.
Telegram has detected evidence that Chinese authorities may have uploaded numbers to identify protesters, said a person with direct knowledge of the situation. But it is unclear whether Chinese authorities have successfully used this tactic to locate protesters.
Government authorities in Hong Kong did not respond to a request for comment.
The fix Telegram is working on would allow users to disable matching by phone number. That option represents a balance between making it easy for users to find their contacts and the privacy needs of those who rely on the app for protection against state security agents.
Telegram hopes to help protect Hong Kong protesters with the update, the source said. But wide adoption of the optional security setting would make the app far harder to use for the vast majority of its more than 200 consumers who rely on uploading phone contacts to identify friends and family members on the app, the source said.
The move by Telegram comes as Hong Kong police arrested a number of prominent activists and 3 lawmakers on Friday. Nearly 900 people have been arrested since the demonstrations began three months ago.
With protesters and authorities at an impasse and Hong Kong facing its first recession in a decade, speculation has grown that the city government may impose emergency law, giving it extra powers over detentions, censorship and curfews.
The government would consider using “all laws” to prevent violence, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, who has become a lightning rod for protesters’ anger, said this week.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday the company would encrypt conversations on more of its messaging services and make them compatible, the latest sign that the world's biggest social network sees its future in intimate online chats.
Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook profile that within a few years direct messaging would dwarf discussion on the traditional, open platform of Facebook's news feed, where public posts can go viral across the world.
"Working towards implementing end-to-end encryption for all private communications is the right thing to do," Zuckerberg said. He cautioned that details of the plan could change as the company consults experts throughout 2019.
The strategy could frustrate law enforcement surveillance efforts as well as lawmakers who have called on Facebook to better moderate user content. It also would limit the company's ability to generate revenue through targeted ads.
But Zuckerberg said he could live with those tradeoffs because users want better control of their data while still having easy access to their contacts.
As part of Zuckerberg's strategy, a Facebook user would be able to communicate with WhatsApp users while only having a Messenger account and vice versa. Users would also have more options for how long chats are saved, he added.
"The future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won't stick around forever," he said. "This is the future I hope we will help bring about."
Facebook shares rose 0.7 percent on Wednesday. Shares in Snap Inc, which owns messaging app Snapchat, ended down more than 2 percent.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that the public may be skeptical about Facebook's privacy push given the company does not have a "strong reputation for building privacy protective services."
Lawmakers, users and investors have expressed concerns over the last two years that Facebook is not doing enough to safeguard user data after a series of breaches and privacy bugs.
But Zuckerberg wrote that "we've repeatedly shown that we can evolve to build the services that people really want."
Facebook is one of the biggest global players in private messaging with its WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, each used by more than 1 billion people. Only WhatsApp fully secures message content from all outsiders, including Facebook itself.
Police have raised concerns about introducing similar security to the other services because they would no longer be able to access online chat records to track religious extremists or other perpetrators.
Regulators have called for Facebook to increase moderation of user content, but more encryption would make it difficult to view and track problematic posts.
Encrypted conversations also limit Facebook's ability to send targeted advertisements. Facebook may need to look for new ways to insert itself between businesses and consumers to generate revenue.
Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat app has shown how a messaging service can generate revenue through not only displaying ads, but also being a marketplace for games, merchandise and services such as taxi rides.
Facebook has encouraged messaging conversations between businesses and consumers since at least 2016 but has not disclosed its revenue from the efforts.
Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that "significant thought" still needs to go into integrating commerce into messaging.
James Cordwell, a financial analyst at Atlantic Equities, said Facebook's strategy risks undercutting its current way of making money.
"But if they can pull off this WeChat-esque strategy," he said, "it could open up material revenue streams beyond just advertising, something that investors have been craving for quite some time."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
