WhatsappThe success of the Yellow Vest activists in France has drawn observers to ask: What messaging technology are they using to remain below the radar when organizing protests? After all we are talking about tens of thousands of people in anti-government protests being organized under the nose of the French government.
The answer appears to rest with an Israeli-Polish technology initiative called UseCrypt, which has developed an unhackable encryption technology.
“We have been testing out and using UseCrypt with some amazing results,” says Varden Maheu, an activist and organizer. “I cannot say that everyone is using it, but those that are feel truly safe from the government’s prying eyes.”
UseCrypt was started in Poland and has since brought in Israeli technology leaders and security professionals to help expand its reach and market penetration. UseCrypt is radical in the sense that it stores no data on its servers as well as not actually owning the encryption key, which stays with the user.
WhatsApp may claim it does not use or access the actual messages of its users, but nothing stops it from using the data stored in the phone which is not encrypted. This available for WhatsApp and hackers.
More than this, Facebook/Whatsapp is now entertaining the idea of merging all of its messaging services under one technology, thus giving it access to Whatsapp users’ messaging data in order to run ads.
With Yellow Vest protests raging in France and popping up in other countries, activists have found an encryption format that essentially aids them in their struggle against their governments’ agenda.
“I never thought I would use something formulated by Israelis or Poles,” says Garland Barrière, another activist from Northern France and admits he has an animus against what he says is “Jewish influence” in globalization, which has hurt the French worker. Despite his subtle anti-semitism, he is willing to use UseCrypt, because it works. “Right now the success of these protests are more important than what I think about Israel.”
