Press

One potential security threat: The unsecured device can be hacked and turned into an active live microphone, Weaver mentioned. If anyone is bringing this phone into important government meetings, the consequences could be catastrophic.

“The threat is remote, quite limited in scope, applicability (requiring a server or phone number compromise) and stealthiness (users who have the setting enabled still see a warning—even if after the fact),” the letter reads.

“Mistrust of attribution would make hacking easier, since it means retribution is harder: You need to have attribution for retribution, both to know that you are retaliating against the right actor and to convince the public you are justified in doing so if it is a public retaliation,” wrote Nicholas Weaver.

Privacy expert Serge Egelman said chat is light-years ahead of email when it comes to keeping messages private. The system for encrypting emails sent from any email provider -- called "Pretty Good Privacy" or PGP -- is cumbersome to put it mildly. The system's "been around for the better part of 30 or 40 years," said Egelman, who directs usable security and privacy research at the International Computer Science Institute. "No one uses it because the tools are hard to use."