Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know who Edward Snowden is regardless of your locale. You’re probably aware of the Google Allo SMS app as well, and it looks like Mr. Snowden is not a fan for the reasons you would expect… privacy.
Once you post anything online, it’s there to stay. While you can remove traces of posts, tweets, and other information on the net, you will never get it all — especially in the day and age of screen shots. Anytime a new company drops a major messaging app or assistant, it’s big news as is the case with the Google Allo release. Several privacy concerns have already been brought to light, and now Edward Snowden is giving his opinion as well.
If you’re wondering what Allo is, it’s basically a messenger and personal assistant all-in-one. It’s Google’s version of Whatsapp to a degree, and as it’s Google, it is bound to get millions of downloads. Not everyone is a fan as you can clearly see by the tweet sent from Edward Snowden below…
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
While many may not agree with Snowden’s stance on certain things, there is a bit of cause for alarm. At launch, the Google Allo privacy features were changed as it was supposed to only keep your information for a set amount of time. Well, that changed as it doesn’t use end-to-end encryption, which opens the doors for warrants from the police and big brother.
For some folks, that isn’t going to be an issue although unscrupulous individuals or those concerned about their privacy would obviously have big problems with the Google Allo app. Not to mention, it’s also just a little creepy considering most of us expect our communications to stay private when we’re sending out SMS messages.
You can bet the Google Allo privacy concerns are far from over as we expect to hear more about things in the weeks to come. That said, the app was just released and Google has never been one to shy away from changing things, so it may not be an issue at all down the road.
Have you used Google Allo and are how concerned are you about stored SMS messages?
via – Fast Company