By Max Eddy
Although that sounds scary, there’s some good news: Your text messages may already be secure if you use an app that offers a form of security called end-to-end encryption, or E2EE, and you can take a few extra steps to make it much harder for snoops to see your texts.
Who can read your unprotected text messages?
Text messages not protected by E2EE can be read by a variety of third parties: wireless providers, law enforcement agencies, and even spies.
“You might as well think of them as postcards,” said Daniel Kahn Gillmor, senior staff technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Everybody along the path can see them.”
And that’s if the system is working as intended. In the recent Salt Typhoon attack, a long-running hacking campaign against US wireless companies allegedly carried out by China, hackers accessed customer data and the legal wiretap system used by US law enforcement. NBC reported that the attackers may have accessed call logs and voice calls.
People you send texts to can also easily forward your messages to others, and anyone with physical access to your phone—a thief, an abusive partner, law enforcement officers—can view your messages.
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