In this modern age, people communicate routinely utilizing their cell phones via text. The types of messages that go back and forth, range from the mundane to that which is meant to be private, and everything in between. Some messages can deal with trade secrets, confidentiality of all stripes, as well as issues that are extremely personal. In other words, most people, for various reasons, do not desire to have their texts read by just anybody, and to a large extent, most people have zero interest in all of their texts being read by anybody other than their own self.
For most people, when we text message using SMS text, we believe that what we have so sent is only going to be read by the intended recipient, and nobody else; but unfortunately, in this modern hi-tech surveillance state, that isn’t the case at all. The first thing to understand is that whatever cellular carrier that we have contracted with, for whatever dubious reasoning or legal structure that they must adhere to, can see the full contents of any message so sent while we are part of their network. That in and of itself, seems to be fundamentally wrong, for a reasonable person would expect that their cellular carrier should just represent the transmission means for a text message to reach its destination, and nothing more than that, and thus shouldn’t be able to read or see the contents, thereof. Additionally, in this world of “bad guys” those that are skilled at the dark arts have the capability to exploit weaknesses in SMS texting so as to be capable of intercepting text messages and therefore use the information so extracted for their own personal advantage. In the same vein, governmental authorities or quasi-governmental authorities can also use those same dark arts to extract whatever that they so desire from messages so sent, without the foreknowledge of the person so sending or receiving those text messages.
In short, text messaging while taking on the aura of being safe, secure, and private to the users of such, isn’t that at all. This would presuppose that the current structure of SMS text messaging is surely in need of an appropriate upgrade or replacement – but the thing is, that governments as well as other entities, so of, would probably prefer for things to remain just the way that they currently are, for governments have a rather nasty habit of wanting to know everything about their citizenry, without correspondingly letting the general public know everything about them.
Regrettably, then, even when people know that their text messages aren’t as private or secure that they so wish that they would be – we find that people, for the most part, are pretty much going to keep sending out sensitive, compromising, and private messages to one another, because text messaging is a preferred and easy way to communicate with our contacts. This thus signifies that until the general public raises a real ruckus to this invasion of their privacy, pretty much, we can expect that the government won’t fundamentally desire to change a thing.