I understand that some RCS conversations are end-to-end encrypted, but I'm unclear about what that actually prevents Google from seeing. Can Google decrypt and read the messages, and what other information might it collect besides my device ID, SIM details, and phone number? I also frequently text people using iPhones, so I'd like to know whether that changes the privacy situation.
3 Answers
Chats with iPhone users may have different encryption protections than chats entirely within Google Messages, depending on the current app and protocol support. If privacy is important, confirm whether the specific conversation shows end-to-end encryption; turning off RCS avoids RCS-specific handling but may fall back to less-secure SMS or MMS.
Claims that bots automatically read every encrypted message are speculation, not evidence. End-to-end encryption is specifically designed to prevent the service from reading the content, although it does not hide all metadata or guarantee that a recipient’s device is secure.
When end-to-end encryption is active for everyone in the conversation and the messaging app supports it, Google should not be able to decrypt the message contents. Encrypted message data may still be handled or temporarily stored by the service, and Google can generally collect metadata needed to operate the service, such as account, device, phone-number, delivery, and usage information. Check the conversation’s encryption indicator rather than assuming every RCS chat is protected.
Related Questions
How to Build a Custom GPT Journalist That Posts Directly to WordPress
Fix Not Being Able To Add New Categories With Intuitive Category Checklist For Wordpress
Get Real User IP Without Installing Cloudflare Apache Module
How to Get Total Line Count In Visual Studio 2013 Without Addons
Install and Configure PhpMyAdmin on Centos 7
How To Setup PostfixAdmin With Dovecot and Postfix Virtual Mailbox