Twitter is a lot of things, but highly secure is not one of them. Genius hackers can bypass the firewalls the company has in place, or a government agency can coerce the social network to give up your private messages in the DM.
Well, reports emerging indicate the social network is planning to roll out encryption on the DM messaging platform. That way, it could give you an extra layer of security, one that would be virtually impossible for hackers to hack, or enable them to give up that information to a government body.
TechCrunch reports of a new feature in the latest installer for Twitter Android app shows a new ‘Secret conversation’ feature complete with an encryption key. This indicates the company could already have rolled out encrypted DM messaging; though still in beta.
Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) / TechCrunch
Though when the company was approached about the new feature, its spokesperson chose not to comment on it. So there is no knowing if or when the feature will roll out to the general public.
Twitter is already popular with people looking to get the information across to the masses. The fact that it lacks encryption makes people who have sensitive information shy away from using it, and instead use other encrypted platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.
If it does adopt encryption, it will give whistleblowers, citizen journalists, and anyone with sensitive information more option to get their messages across. The advantage of using Twitter (with the encryption) over the aforementioned alternatives, other than Signal, is the fact the social network is not tied to a user’s phone number. You basically don’t have to give out your phone number.
