After Trump’s Win, Secure Messaging App Signal’s Downloads Increase 400% “There has never been a single event that has resulted in this kind of sustained, day-over-day increase,” Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Open Whisper Systems, the software nonprofit behind Signal, told BuzzFeed News. Marlinspike interpreted the jump as a reaction to Trump’s win, and anxiety over the future of US surveillance. The secure communications tool is well-known in technologists, journalists, and political activists’ circles. It allows people to text and speak with one another using what’s known as end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender and their intended recipient can read or hear the message. Using the same technology that powers the Signal app, Google, Facebook, and WhatsApp have each released their own end-to-end–encrypted messaging service this year. US law enforcement officials aren’t happy about this and have described the rise of secure communications platforms as an obstacle to their ability to thwart crime and terrorism. But the prevailing view among Silicon Valley executives, computer scientists, and security experts is that encryption is a crucial defense against an onslaught of criminal hacks, seemingly endless data breaches, and invasive government surveillance. See http://ift.tt/2lorKkH
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