this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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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:

  • 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.

  • 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).

  • Signal: date and time of account creation and date of last connection.

  • Telegram: IP address and phone number for investigations into confirmed terrorists, otherwise nothing.

  • Threema: cryptographic fingerprint of phone number and e-mail address, push service tokens if used, public key, account creation date, last connection date.

  • Viber: account data and IP address used to create the account; investigators can also access message history (date, time, source, destination).

  • WeChat: basic data such as name, phone number, e-mail and IP address, but only for non-Chinese users.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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[–] GuyDudeman@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago (26 children)

Here's my foolproof method of not having any issue with the FBI: Don't do illegal stuff.

[–] jherazob@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tell that to trans people in Florida, or people seeking abortion healthcare on Texas

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[–] TemporaryBoyfriend@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And FYI, the info about Signal was confirmed as they received a subpoena a couple years back, and their response was part of the public court records.

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[–] NuclearNoggin@lemmy.fmhy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

damn this is pretty interesting. thanks for sharing.

Great to see ever-mounting proof that end-to-end encryption works! This is why I'm on Matrix.

[–] fogetaboutit@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

well this isn't as eye opening as I thought it would be. But thank you for the summary, really!

[–] catastrophicblues@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It seems like Signal, Telegram, and Threema are the best for now. Signal provides the least information, but for the majority of people, the stuff from Telegram are things the government already know, and I'm not sure how useful the Threema information is.

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Just BC tele doesn't share data with FBI... Does mean they don't share with fsb.

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[–] Borgzilla@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anyone use Session messenger? It doesn't need a phone number unlike Signal.

[–] emzaid@infosec.pub 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been using session as my family chat. The only thing I dislike is its connection to Oxen. But it makes an interesting case for resistance to Sybil attacks. But that's not really in my threat model for family messages lol. I'm mostly happy we moved the fuck away from messenger. I'll probably move them to matrix, but I gotta wait a bit before switching them again lol

In terms of usability, it's not hard to set up and has been very stable for the 1.5 years we've been using it. Even getting my less tech savvy family on it was pretty easy.

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