How to Secure Your Voice Conversations
How to Secure Your Voice Conversations T0Zw5GF

Regular phone calls (landline or mobile) are never secure, and you cannot make them so. If you want to keep your voice conversations completely private, then you need to use VoIP with end-to-end encryption.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications enable you to talk over the internet. They frequently additionally enable you to make video calls and send Instant Messages. VoIP services allowing cheap or free calls anywhere in the world and have thus become extremely popular. Skype, specifically, has turned into an easily recognized name.

VoIP connections to and from a middleman may be secure, but if the middleman just hands over your conversations to the NSA (as happened with Skype) or some other government organization, this security is next to meaningless.

So, what is needed is end-to-end encryption where an encrypted tunnel is created directly between the participants in a conversation. And no-one else.

Signal (Android, iOS) – in addition to being probably the most secure Instant Messaging (IM) app currently available, Signal allows you to make secure VoIP calls.

Similarly as with messaging, Signal use your general address book. On the off chance that a contact additionally utilizes Signal then you can begin an encrypted VoIP discussion with them. On the off chance that a contact does not utilize Signal then you can either welcome them to utilize the application, or converse with them utilizing your customary insecure cellular phone connection.

The encryption Signal uses for VoIP calls is not as strong as the encryption it uses for text messaging.

For most purposes, this level of encryption should be more than sufficient. But if very high levels of privacy are required then you should probably stick to text messaging instead.

Jitsi (Windows, OSX, Linux, Android (experimental)) – this free and open source software offers all the functionality of Skype. Except everything is encrypted using ZRTP. This includes voice calls, video conferencing, file transfer, and messaging.

The first time you connect to someone it can take a minute or two to set up the encrypted connection (designated by a padlock). But the encryption is afterwards transparent. As a straight Skype replacement for the desktop, Jitsi is difficult to beat.


Did you find this tutorial helpful? Don’t forget to share your views with us.