Edward Snowden On New Google 'Allo,' “Don’t Use It!”

Edward Snowden is well-known as a whistleblower and is firmly against spying of any kind, which is why he is now wanted by the U.S. government. Recently he commented on the new messenger offering by Google called “Allo,” saying that people should not use it. According to him, the app is a privacy threat masquerading as a revolutionary AI-driven chat service.

Google “Allo” is a new messaging service that that the tech company is marketing as a complete game changer, Tech Times reports. Powered by artificial intelligence, the messaging app also offers new features that are supposed to be innovative tricks but can actually present problems when it comes to matters of privacy.

For one thing, the app is meant to collect data from conversations, which Google will then feed into the AI that’s powering the messaging service. This is how the AI is supposed to learn and evolve to customize the experience of users, much like what it’s doing with search histories and even Gmail messages.

Unfortunately, this also means that everything users type into the chat boxes will be recorded and stored. No matter what Google might say to try to justify such behavior, there’s no denying that collecting private communications is a violation of their users’ privacy.

The press did not exactly take to the messaging service, however, which should help in minimizing the number of users willing to try “Allo.” As Fortune notes, many thought that it was simply a curiosity while others went so far as to say that it was unremarkable.

What has privacy advocates really riled up about the setup of the app is how easily it can make the information available to government agencies. Snowden Tweeted that police can just ask for the information gathered from suspects and it’s more than possible that Google would be forced to give it to them.

One piece of good news, however, is the “incognito mode” that users could activate while using the app, which fans of Google Chrome will most likely be familiar with by now. Even so, the thought of having all conversations tracked and stored on Google’s servers is a troubling one.