MESSAGE PRIVACY RANKING: HOW THE COMPANIES SCORED
Amnesty International ranked 11 technology companies on whether they are meeting their human rights responsibilities
in the way they use encryption to protect users’ online security. We focused specifically on instant messaging (IM)services. (See below for an explanation of the scoring system.)
1. RECOGNISES
2. DEPLOYS END-TO- 3. INFORMS USERSONLINE THREATSEND ENCRYPTION AS OF RISKS ANDTO HUMAN RIGHTS? A DEFAULT?
ENCRYPTION USED?

COMPANYIM SERVICESASSESSEDFACEBOOK

Yes, but only
committed to freedom
FB MESSENGER, of expression throughparticipation in multiWHATSAPP
stakeholder initiative.
Score 2APPLE

IMESSAGE,FACETIMETELEGRAMTELEGRAMMESSENGER

Yes, but only on
WhatsApp, not on
Messenger.
Score 2Inadequate notification
within the apps, nowarning in Messenger
when using weakerencryption.
Score 1OVERALL
5. PUBLISHES
4. DISCLOSES GOVERNMENTTECHNICAL DETAILS SCOREREQUESTS FOR USER DATA?
OF ENCRYPTION?
/100
Yes, and notifies affected user
unless legally prohibited. Has
taken public stance against
encryption backdoors.
Score 3

Yes, both apps use
open source Signal
protocol, providespecification.
Score 373

Yes, but no policy
Yes.
commitment to
Score 3freedom of expression.
Score 2Inadequate notification Yes, and notifies affected user
within the apps.
unless legally prohibited. Has
taken public stance against
Score 1encryption backdoors.
Score 3

Some specificationof encryption, butprotocol not opensource.
Score 1

67

Yes, statedcommitment to rights
and recognition ofonline threats.
Score 3Has end-to-end
encryption, but not set
as a default.
Score 1Inadequate notificationwithin the apps; nowarning when using
weaker encryption.
Score 1

Commitment not to share user
data, but no transparency
report with details of requests
received. Has taken publicstance against encryption
backdoors.
Score 2

Yes, app is open
source, althoughencryption
implementation
criticised.
Score 367

Yes on Duo; but only
as an option on Allo,
Hangouts not at all.
Score 1Inadequate notification
within the apps;
no warning in Allo
when using weakerencryption.
Score 1

Yes, and notifies affected user
unless legally prohibited. Has
taken public stance against
encryption backdoors.
Score 3

Allo uses open
source Signal,
but not publishedspecification yet.
Score 1

53GOOGLE

ALLO, DUO,HANGOUTS

Yes, but only
committed to freedomof expression throughparticipation in multistakeholder initiative.
Score 2LINELINE

Commitment toYes.
rights, but no policy
Score 3
recognition of threats.
Score 1Inadequate notification No, does not publish
within the app.
transparency report. Has
taken public stance against
Score 1encryption backdoors.
Score 1

Provides specificationof encryption, but notopen source protocol.
Score 147

VIBER

No commitment toYes.
freedom of expression, Score 3
no policy recognitionof threats.
Score 1Inadequate notification No, does not publish
within the app.
transparency report. Has
publicly rejected encryption
Score 1
backdoors.
Score 1

Provides specificationof encryption, but notopen source protocol.
Score 147

KAKAO TALK

Commitment torights, but no policy
recognition of threats.
Score 1

Has end-to-end
encryption, but not set
as a default.
Score 1Inadequate notification
within the apps; nowarning when using
weaker encryption.
Score 1

Publishes transparency report.
Has taken public stanceagainst encryption backdoors.
Score 3Only basic information
on system ofencryption.
Score 040

SKYPE

Yes, clear
commitment to rights
and recognition of
online threats.
Score 3Skype does not haveend-to-end encryption.
Score 0No information or
warnings within
app about level ofencryption on Skype.
Score 0Yes, and notifies affected user
unless legally prohibited. Has
taken public stance against
encryption backdoors.
Score 3

No specification of
Skype system ofencryption.
Score 040

SNAPCHAT

SNAPCHAT

No commitment tofreedom of expression,
no policy recognitionof threats.
Score 1

Snapchat does nothave end-to-endencryption.
Score 0No information given
to users on website orin app about level ofencryption.
Score 0Yes, and notifies affected user. No specification ofRefuses to backdoor encryption. Snapchat system ofencryption.
Score 3
Score 026

BLACKBERRYBLACKBERRYMESSENGER

No commitment tofreedom of expression,
no policy recognitionof threats.
Score 1No, only offers endto-end encryption as
separate paid service.
Score 0Explanation on website,
but no reference toencryption within appitself.
Score 1No, does not publish
transparency report. Has
publicly rejected encryption
backdoors, but alleged cases
where not done so in practice.
Score 0

Provides specificationof encryption, but notopen source protocol.
Score 1

20QQ, WECHATNo recognitionof threats, nocommitment tofreedom of expression.
Score 0

WeChat not end-toend encrypted, QQ
encryption unclear.
Score 0No information given
to users on website orin app about level ofencryption.
Score 0No. Does not publish
transparency report, does not
publically refuse to backdoor
encryption.
Score 0No specification aboutencryption.
Score 0

VIBER MEDIAKAKAO INC

MICROSOFTTENCENT0We did not carry out an overall assessment of the security of the different messaging apps. Amnesty International recommends that journalists,
activists, human right defenders and others whose communications may be particularly at risk seek expert digital security advice. We also did
not rank the companies on their overall human rights performance, or their approach to privacy across all their products and services.
We ranked the companies across 5 criteria, awarding up to 3 points per criterion, based on whether our assessment determined that thecompany met the criteria completely (score 3), substantially but with room for improvement (score 2), only partially (score 1) or not at all (score0). This gave a maximum possible score of 15, but for ease of understanding, we scaled the overall score as a total out of 100.