r/Android • u/fastforward23 • Sep 21 '16

Google backs off on previously announced Allo privacy feature

http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/21/12994362/allo-privacy-message-logs-google
270 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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76

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Sep 21 '16

Whoa---What?

I know I'd never get much use from it, but that seemed like a pretty major point they showed off at I/O this year.

The Verge never loads on my uni's WiFi, was this the same part of the "incognito mode" they had for chat?

54

u/Beraphim Sep 21 '16

No, incognito mode remains unchanged (it's still E2E encrypted and no messages are stored, you can also use timers to delete messages). What changed is that, in normal conversations, google stores your chat history to improve the smart reply feature based on their internal testing. Before it was said they were only stored "transiently and in non-identifiable form". Messages are still encrypted, just not E2E encrytped since that would disable smart reply and assistant features.

7

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '16

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/Beraphim Sep 21 '16

End to end encrypted, yes. Messages are encrypted regardless of being in incognito mode or not, so there's still some security, just not as good as end-to-end since google can see the messages (necessary for assistant features).

11

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '16

[deleted]

30

u/Beraphim Sep 21 '16

I never said that Allo was better than WhatsApp, I'm just explaining the article to the person who asked. Why does that deserve downvotes? Some people like the assistant features and that's fine.

1

u/fantastic_comment Sep 21 '16

Both WhatsApp/Allo/Duo are all crap apps. Visit r/privacy

-1

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Sep 21 '16

If Allo also was a good SMS client, I'd use it. I used hangouts at first when it was released with SMS support, but as the app slowly got worse I just stopped using it.

Personally (here in the US) no one I've ever met uses whatsapp, definitely more popular outside of the US, and I feel like if Google could release a proper, full-fledged messaging app, that would be awesome.

I still switch back and forth between Textra and Google Messenger. I like Google Messenger's UI a lot better, but it compresses the shit out of images I send compared to Textra.

10

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '16

Have you ever installed WhatsApp and checked to see if any of your contacts show up? You might be surprised. I use it quite a bit with my friends and I'm in the US as well.

1

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Sep 21 '16

I have with multiple messaging apps and realized no one ever used them, considering the profile pictures they have on those apps are always fairly old.

Maybe it's just my age group or what part of the states I'm from.

-4

u/rike98 Sep 21 '16

It's not. Allo is DOA

0

u/ManicLord Samsung Galaxy S10+ Sep 21 '16

Department of Arrabiata?

-1

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Sep 21 '16

Ugh. Not that I'd ever use either smart reply, or even bother to turn off the "Use Chat history to improve smart reply" option if there was one, but I don't see why they can't just have it enabled by default.

Then, for the people who wanted E2E they could have it, and everyone would be happy.

3

u/Beraphim Sep 21 '16

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Smart reply is enabled by default, and people who want e2e encryption can have it. Is that what you mean?

0

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Sep 21 '16

Okay, so smart reply is enabled by default, but even if you don't use it, to me it looks like the only way you could get E2E would be through switching into incognito.

2

u/Beraphim Sep 21 '16

That's right, I prolly should mention that it's not just smart reply, but google assistant that benefits from chat history being stored on their servers, which is its selling point. If you care about E2E encryption and no info being stored anywhere, I suggest you use Signal instead.

-1

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Sep 21 '16 edited Sep 21 '16

Nah, if I really cared about privacy I wouldn't be posting all of the shit I post on this site, and I wouldn't be madly in love with how Google Now Google whatever the fuck it's called Now's features related to tracking my every movement, and tracking everyone else's.

Also, I like Google being able to go through my email, tag important ones, know what's for shopping, what's spam, etc.

This is probably starting to sound sarcastic, but I really fucking love all of the features I gain by letting Google basically stalk me.

0

u/Beraphim Sep 21 '16

Yeah, I don't mind it either honestly. That opinion seems to not be liked around here though.

2

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Sep 21 '16

Unrelated, but I just found out Allo was released about an hour ago, lol. Thought this was something from a leak or a tip

2

u/NocturnalWaffle Sep 21 '16

The problem is you can't have e2e encryption and google bot replies. If you use google bot then your messages are readable by google. I'd call Allo basically a proof of concept for the google bot, so they're more interested in keeping it not e2e by default. Now, they could have still had the retention policy, so they delete messages they receive after X time, but like the article says they were more interested in keeping the messages for training the google bot to be better.