Which Messaging Apps Are the Most Secure?

Secure messaging is a hard thing to achieve. Some services promise security, but are woefully bad at delivering it. Other services don’t necessarily promise security, but they still do a poor job of protecting user data. In order to help consumers when choosing messaging services, the Electronic Frontier Foundation created a scorecard that shows consumers which messaging apps have which weaknesses.

The questions asked to judge the apps and services include:

• Is the data encrypted in transit?
• Encrypted so the provider can’t read it?
• Is security design properly documented?
• Is the code open to independent review?

Each service received either a negative or a positive response, which makes up the simple rankings.