Buried inside Twitter’s
Android app is a “Secret conversation” option that if launched would
allow users to send encrypted direct messages. The feature could make Twitter a
better a home for sensitive communications that often end up on encrypted
messaging apps like Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp.
The encyrpted DMs option was first spotted inside the
Twitter for Android application package (APK) by Jane Manchun Wong. APKs often
contain code for unlaunched features that companies are quietly testing or will
soon make available. A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on the record.
It’s unclear how long it might be before Twitter officially launches the
feature, but at least we know it’s been built.
The appearance of encrypted DMs comes 18 months after
whistleblower Edward Snowden asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for the feature,
which Dorsey said was “reasonable and something we’ll think about”.
Twitter has gone from “thinking about” the feature to
prototyping it. The screenshot above shows the options to learn more about
encrypted messaging, start a secret conversation, and view both your own and
your conversation partner’s encryption keys to verify a secure connection.
reasonable and something we'll think about
Twitter’s DMs have become a powerful way for people to
contact strangers without needing their phone number or email address. Whether
it’s to send a reporter with a scoop, warn someone of a problem, discuss
business, or just ‘slide into their DMs’ to flirt, Twitter has established one
of the most open messaging mediums. But without encryption, those messages are
subject to snooping by governments, hackers, or Twitter itself.
Twitter has long positioned itself as a facilitator of
political discourse and even uprisings. But anyone seriously worried about the
consequences of political dissonance, whistleblowing, or leaking should be
using an app like Signal that offers strong end-to-end encryption. Launching
encrypted DMs could win back some of those change-makers and protect those
still on Twitter.
The letters of your tweet are replaced with similar looking letters (Unicode homoglyphs) that are used to hide your hidden message. Hiding messages in messages is called Steganography.
Steganography (pronounced STEHG-uh-NAH-gruhf-ee, from Greek steganos, or "covered," and graphie, or "writing") is the hiding of a secret message within an ordinary message and the extraction of it at its destination. Steganography takes cryptography a step farther by hiding an encrypted message so that no one suspects it exists. Ideally, anyone scanning your data will fail to know it contains encrypted data.
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