Snapchat's privacy standard lags Google, Facebook, Apple

In the days following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election, a relatively obscure texting app called Signal went viral on social media and its downloads spiked. Created by non-profit Open Whisper Systems, the app offers an extremely secure communication protocol of end-to-end encryption, meaning that any communication can only be read by the people who send and receive the messages.

And unlike other end-to-end encrypted products, such as Apple’s iMessage, Signal’s Snowden-endorsed protocol is open-source, providing verifiable public proof of security. In other words, anyone who wants to see how the system encrypts something can look at the code.

With anti-media sentiment in the White House growing and at least 10 states proposing crackdowns on peaceful protesting, the thirst for encrypted messaging is only growing.

“Millions of people used Signal before the election,” Signal’s creator Moxie Marlinspike told Yahoo Finance in an email. “Growth has continued to accelerate since then. We’ve seen a sustained 400% increase in daily installs.”

Snap has lagged behind Apple iMessage, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Google

In a messaging landscape that increasingly prioritizes security, one company has been conspicuously absent: Snap. Meanwhile, services like Facebook’s Messenger (FB), WhatsApp, Apple (AAPL) iMessage, Google’s Allo (GOOG), and others have all increased security.