Encrypted messaging is a godsend for mobile communications, whether you’re just sending standard texts to your friends that you want kept private, or engaging in interactions that are better kept secret for safety reasons. Apps like Signal and Telegram offer users the ability to trade messages that can be read by only the sender and the receiver. Of course, people can also use that privacy as a way to conduct unsavory dealings without having to worry about their communications getting exposed.

Encrypted messaging has been in the news for the past couple weeks, largely because of the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who is being accused by the French government of failing to comply with law enforcements’ demands to help catch some people who are using the app for criminal activity. Durov’s arrest also casts a light on the rising profile of Signal, a fully encrypted messaging app that’s always taken a stance against the collection of its users’ data.

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED security writer Andy Greenberg joins us to talk about how encrypted messaging works, what can go wrong, and how while Telegram and Signal may seem similar, the ways they operate are different—and might affect what makes them liable for what users share on its platforms.

Show Notes:

Read Andy’s interview with Signal president Meredith Whittaker. Read Lily Hay Newman and Morgan Meeker’s reporting on the arrest of Telegram’s founder and its broader criminal investigations. Follow all of WIRED’s coverage of Signal and Telegram.

Recommendations:

Andy recommends the memoir My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous by Barrett Brown. Mike recommends taking a ride in a Waymo, just to get an idea of the future of driverless cars that is coming. Lauren recommends The Ringer’s story about the new baseball team, the Oakland Ballers.

Andy Greenberg can be found on social media @agreenberg.bsky.social. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight@heads.social. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

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Chapter 3. The Use of Knowledge in Society