Hacker News Reader

Comment by malka | Hacker News Reader

also, give the user the ability to refuse some permissions. There is no way i'll give any app access to my SMS. As the article stated not even my closest friend or my girlfriend have access to my SMS.

View on HN

I agree with you, SMS is a much private matter, but you're sadly mistaken. SMS are not encrypted nor secure communication. Your carrier can read them, and so do the relevant part of the corporate surveillance apparatus along with all you do with your mobile phone / smartphone. And so do government agencies.

SMS are sort of the same issue as clear text email, probably a bit worse.

Facebook can't access them though. This is a strange concept to some people, but an insecure method of communication can still be secure against some parties. One of the best examples is RC4 - the NSA and GCHQ are reading everything you send/receive encrypted with RC4, but likely nobody else, at least for now (although that could change at any time; another reason to eliminate it everywhere).

Moreover, legal protections exist even where technological protections do not; just because the police have the ability to intercept text messages doesn't mean they have the right to do so without a warrant (and somewhat similarly for carriers). Once you voluntarily give the police — or carriers — permission to read your text messages, all bets are off.

This is a must have until they can figure a better way to give selective permissions.

If someone comes to fix my house, I don't give them a free entry for lifetime just for convenience.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com