(News) Google Allo: Don't use it, says Edward Snowden

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Google's Allo messaging app and its Assistant bot has finally arrived, but it's been slammed for reneging on a promise that it would, by default, make it more difficult to spy on.Because of the missing privacy feature, NSA-contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden's first take of Allo after yesterday's US launch is that it's just a honeypot for surveillance.

"Free for download today: Google Mail, Google Maps, and Google Surveillance. That's Allo. Don't use Allo," wrote Snowden.But it now appears that Google won’t be doing that after all. Instead it will keep hold of all conversations.

Google will use that data to improve parts of the app, such as its smart replies feature. That will allow the app to read through conversations and try and work out how people talk – it can then use that data to suggest what they might want to say to their friends.But Google would presumably also be able to use that same data at a future date to target ads at users. Since their personal conversations might include some of their most sensitive data, that could lead to prying of a kind that most people would object to.

Making the change does probably keep Google on the right side of the law. By keeping track of all messages, Allo conversations will be accessible by law enforcement with warrants – something that can’t happen on apps like iMessage or WhatsApp, both of which have run into trouble over not being able to give up information to authorities.All of those problems led Mr Snowden to send out a flurry of tweets telling people not to use Allo.

Allo does support end-to-end encryption, which should make it difficult for anyone but recipient and sender to view the contents of messages: but Google was criticized by Snowden and other privacy advocates for setting it as off by default.Allo relies on the encryption protocol used by Signal, which Snowden has vouched for as a private messaging app, but in Allo it is only active when users are in Incognito Mode.

"We've given users transparency and control over their data in Google Allo. And our approach is simple -- your chat history is saved for you until you choose to delete it. You can delete single messages or entire conversations in Allo," Google said in a statement to Updatecrunch."We also provide the option to chat in Incognito mode, where messages are end-to-end encrypted and you can set a timer to automatically delete messages on your device, and the recipient's, at a set time."