Every single day now we learn of new threats to our privacy, security, safety and freedom.

In 2026 our private means of communications are under attack. The government is constantly trying to outlaw secure messaging, virtual private networks, and your right to use the Internet safely and anonymously.

The tech companies no longer even make the pretense of protecting our privacy – there was a time when Apple would push back against governmental attacks on their encryption and offered secure messaging to all users whether they lived in Apple’s walled-garden or used Android or another competing operating system.

But now in 2026 even Apple has bowed down to the government. They are disabling privacy features and cooperating with search warrants and subpoenas like never before. Microsoft, while touting the benefits of using their Bitlocker full disk encryption, will gladly had your encryption keys over to government investigators.

Meta (or Facebook or Instagram or whatever) after taking over WhatsApp pretends to offer us secure and encrypted messaging in Facebook and Instagram – this is complete bullshit as they mine your conversations for data to build a profile on you which they share with advertisers and the government.

And Google might be the worst among them although we have long known that they read and analyze every bit of data in our accounts for their own profit. Every message you’ve sent or received in Gmail and every file you’ve stored in your Google Drive or Google Photos isn’t private and has probably already ended up on government servers.

Currently the safest way to communicate still appears to be by using Signal Private Messenger, and while as of July 2026 we are learning that the government has been using troves of Signal messages to prosecute activists and dissenters it is my opinion that the Signal protocol is still safe to use so long as you keep your device secure and can trust the person on the other end to do the same. Do not participate in message groups – if you are in one leave immediately. Do not rely on disappearing messages. Make sure whoever is on the other end of your conversation has secured their device with a strong password that they have not shared with anyone else. Do not share your password with your partner or children. Do not write it down or send it to yourself in a text message. Do not type it in standing in front of a Flock camera or in the lobby of the courthouse under a security camera. Do not let the media photograph it over your shoulder as we’ve seen in several White House incidents.

Do not use Signal Desktop on an unsecured computer – the message database will be stored in plaintext on your PC and it is a trivial matter to break into most PCs.

Do not rely on Signal backups – if your data is in their cloud its safety depends on the security of the PIN you use to encrypt it and I suspect these backups might be the security loophole the government is using.

It is possible although unlikely that the government has completely hacked the phones of activists and is accumulating terabytes of screen captures and naturally any Signal conversations would be included in these.

For emails it seems that ProtonMail is the most secure – email messages between a sender and a receiver who are both using ProtonMail accounts will have their bodies encrypted but their subject lines will be unprotected. You can get a free email account at Proton – Private Email

I will send you messages from my client portal via Clio – you may respond to these messages by email or text but be warned that they are not nearly as secure as sending me a message via Signal or using your ProtonMail address to email my ProtonMail address. If you feel you must respond to these Clio messages (and if baffles me that you would, especially if you’re reading this) then keep your response short.

Signal is a free and secure messaging app for both Android and iPhone. It’s open source and endorsed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the civil liberties group that helps fight to keep the government out of your digital life. Signal is free and easy to install and use. Not only should you use it to communicate with your lawyer, but urge your friends and family to install and use it, too. What if the government or a hacker intercepted your text messages? What if a friend or loved one gets in trouble and your embarrassing texts to them get exposed for the whole world to see?

EFF – Installing Signal for Android
EFF – Installing Signal for iPhone
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Learn more about protecting your secrets

Want to learn more about defending yourself and your communications from governmental intrusion? Check out Surveillance Self Defense from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Copyright © 2026, by Joe Welch