Google had maintained several features which are different and similar from others. But technologically a separate track of messaging and platforms across its products. These have included GOOGLE TALK; GOOGLE+ MESSENGER AND HANGOUTS WHICH allows us group video conference with up to 10 users.
Why Google Hangouts Aren’t Safe?
But there are some security problems faced by HANGOUTS that is end-to-end encryption. It means the conversations after transferring and before receiving can be tapped. Google can wiretap your Hangouts at the request of government order. This is what end -to-end encryption mean. This is one of the unknown facts from Google’s Director of Law of Enforcement and Information security Mr. Richard Salgado and Google’s senior privacy policy counsel Mr. David Lieber.
This is one of the major problems that Google is facing about the Hangouts. Many questions and doubts have been raised on this issue. The American Civil Liberties Union’s chief Technologist Mr. Christopher Soghoian questioned the Google representatives why they are avoiding the questions about Hangouts encryption.
Christopher said that the Google authorities are refusing to talk about whether it is capable of wiretapping Hangouts or not. The other side, Apple’s product Face Time is using end-to-end encryption feature and they are a step ahead from saying it is impossible to wiretap this service. Keeping aside the Google’s track record regarding surveillance transparency, security is unusual for this Google Hangouts.
Wire Tapping of Google Hangouts
At the end, the authorities of Google responded about the wiretapping Hangouts issue. They came to say that there is a legal office that allows the government to tap the communications. Google was the first company to disclose the number of wiretap orders it receives issued in criminal investigations. Hangouts are only encrypted on their way between your computer and Google’s servers.
The Consequence is that within the new Hangouts platform, users will no longer have the option of “going off the record” for all their chats. “Going off the record” means turning the feature ON makes it so that your communications are not archived in your chat history. Users can still go OFF the record, but only on a contact-to-contact basis. Hence, they signed off saying that Hangouts are encrypted in resembling and continuing to strengthen the encryption across more services.