As part of the “Data Rights” series, today we decided to consider products that are more interesting in terms of privacy and user protection than were presented in the previous publication.

This article will cover the two applications known as secure and private ways of communicating today with instant-messengers, with a certain degree of fame and “authority” in these areas. Signal and Dust.

Let’s see what opportunities they receive from the text of their privacy policy, and are they really limited in their power over data?

To verify the accuracy of the citations quoted, we recommend that you read the sources for yourself.

See also:

Signal

View Source.

“Certain information is transmitted to us solely for the purpose of placing calls or transmitting messages. Unless otherwise stated below, this information is only kept as long as necessary to place each call or transmit each message, and is not used for any other purpose.”

Information we store:

“The phone number or identifier you register with.” “Randomly generated authentication tokens, keys, etc. necessary for setting up a call or transmitting a message.” “IP addresses may be kept in memory.”

Your information can be shared.

We do not share your information with companies, organizations, and individuals outside of OWS unless one of the following circumstances applies: “When legally required.” “We will share the information we have with entities outside of OWS if we have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of the information is necessary.”

Dust

View Source.

“Radical App reserves the right, at any time and without notice, to add to, change, update or modify this Privacy Policy.” “Any such change, update or modification will be effective immediately upon posting on the Site. Your continued use of any of our Site or Service will signify your acceptance of these changes.” “We collect information you provide directly to us when you create your account. This may include your USERNAME, PASSWORD, EMAIL address, PHONE number, age.” “With your authorization, we may also have access to your contact list(s).” “We may collect usage Information. (time, date, sender-recipient, number of messages, language, browser info, pages viewed, IP adress, site used before)” “We and service providers acting on our behalf, such as Google Analytics, use Log Files and tracking technologies, including cookies, IP addresses, device type, device identifiers, browser types, browser language, referring and exit pages, and URLs, platform type, the number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed.” “We will associate this information with your user ID number for our internal use.” “We may collect or receive information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through our Services.” “We will also use the information to detect, investigate and/or prevent fraudulent, unauthorized or illegal activity, and carry out any other purpose for which the information was collected.” “Your information may be accessed, if accessible, as necessary to provide the Services and may be disclosed: when We have a good faith belief that We are required to disclose the information in response to legal process” “When We have a good faith belief that there is an emergency.” “We may grant access to our servers or turnover information, which may include your information and content, but only to the limited extent expressly required under such subpoena or official demand.” “In addition, we temporarily collect, process and store the contents of your messages on the devices of recipients.” “In the event that Radical App undergoes a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, We may transfer all of your information, including personal information, to the successor organization in such transition.”

Above, the information on the use-of products could have significantly changed the level of trust, but due to public attitudes and the lack of care, the agreement information has been deemed sufficient.

We urge you to approach such application agreements more carefully, it can be both a valuable dialogue for businesses, as well as a truly invaluable lesson for some.

Take care of your data!