Hillary Clinton’s campaign team is using the encrypted application Signal for communicating on sensitive topics, according to a report.
The campaign changed tactics after the Democratic National Committee’s emails were hacked, which came to light this summer. “In the intervening weeks, staffers were told … that if anyone was going to communicate about Donald Trump over e-mail or text message, especially if those missives were even remotely contentious or disparaging, it was imperative that they do so using an application called Signal,” according to a report in Vanity Fair.
Staffers were told the application, widely regarded as the gold standard in commercial encryption technology, was “Snowden-approved,” a reference to statements made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that he uses the application regularly.
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I use Signal every day. #notesforFBI (Spoiler: they already know) https://t.co/KNy0xppsN0
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 2, 2015
The application uses open-source encryption protocols adopted in recent years by other companies, including Google and Facebook, which are seeking to offer similar products. Google’s equivalent, Allo, has yet to be released, while Facebook has taken steps to begin monitoring those who use its specialized communication platform WhatsApp, shaking confidence among privacy advocates.
The Clinton campaign’s newfound appreciation for encryption, and Snowden, contrasts with some of the candidate’s older statements. Clinton has consistently said she considers Snowden a lawbreaker who should have followed whistleblower procedures in exposing NSA surveillance, and in 2015 called for a “Manhattan-like project” to break encryption.
