e present a protocol for secure online com-munication, called “off-the-record messaging”, which hasproperties better-suited for casual conversation than do sys-tems like PGP or S/MIME.

Messaging platforms are either secure or they’re not. NSA, it would seem, tends to agree.

First, the recognition that sensitive information needs to be transmitted securely over instant messaging platforms plays into the hands of the privacy advocates who are against backdoors in the end-to-end encryption used on WhatsApp, Signal, Wickr, iMessage and others. The core argument from the privacy lobby is that a backdoor will almost certainly be exploited by bad actors. Clearly, the EU (and others) would not risk their own comms with such a vulnerability.