{"id":868457,"date":"2026-06-15T08:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/868457\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T08:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:12:18","slug":"signal-veterans-want-to-encrypt-slack-google-docs-and-basically-every-other-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/868457\/","title":{"rendered":"Signal Veterans Want to Encrypt Slack, Google Docs, and Basically Every Other App"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team of developers, including the co-creator of the Signal protocol and contributors from Microsoft and Harvard, are building out open-source software that can help bring the sort of hardened privacy and security offered via Signal\u2019s end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to more collaborative types of apps, such as Slack, Google Docs, and Discord. The project is known as Encrypted Spaces<\/a>, and although it is currently described as being in a \u201cResearch Preview\u201d phase, code already exists on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s website describes the software as an attempt to push back against risks associated with exposure, loss of control, and self-censorship that have grown through the increased use of highly-trusted, centralized cloud services. \u201cFor journalists, activists, patients, and social-service organizations, these risks are not theoretical\u2014they shape what can safely be said, shared, or built,\u201d the website notes.<\/p>\n

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A new research effort called Encrypted Spaces explores an architecture for collaborative applications where data is encrypted, and operations are cryptographically verifiable. Learn more: https:\/\/t.co\/t7qkE27Xdh<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Microsoft Research (@MSFTResearch) June 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Rather than producing a suite of individual apps, the project is built as infrastructure for developers to create encrypted apps of their own. \u201cWe want to provide the technological surface area for developers to build all these apps in a privacy-preserving way,\u201d Nora Trapp, an engineer at Harvard\u2019s Applied Social Media Lab and former technical lead at the Signal Foundation, told Wired<\/a>. \u201cYou can think of it as the Signal protocol for collaboration apps,\u201d Johns Hopkins Computer Science Professor Matt Green added.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on X, Anthony Ronning, who is the CTO of privacy-focused AI startup Maple, described<\/a> Encrypted Spaces as \u201cVerifiable, encrypted, untrusted storage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea is to take the complexities of cryptography out of the equation and create a platform where there\u2019s really no reason not to build end-to-end encryption into these sorts of collaborative apps from the base layer. Zero-knowledge proofs, which are a broader technology also central to privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash<\/a>, are used to allow a central server to keep each end user updated on the latest version of a document or other area of collaboration without the server ever having access to unencrypted data.<\/p>\n

Along with their base architecture software, the Encrypted Spaces team also released a demo app, simply called Spaces, on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t Proton Already Offer This? <\/p>\n

Of course, it should be noted that various options for E2EE collaboration apps already exist. For example, Proton has its own suite of workspace and productivity apps that can be viewed as encrypted alternatives to equivalents offered by Google. There\u2019s also the blockchain-based, Web3-type system called Fileverse, which has options for documents and spreadsheets. CryptPad even offers an E2EE version of Trello. Signal itself also has group chats at this point, and Encrypted Spaces is reported to have originated from that expanded development for the messaging app.<\/p>\n

However, Green still sees value in what Encrypted Spaces offers, as it\u2019s more of a reusable platform aimed at developers rather than end users. \u201cI like the idea that we\u2019re going to have a standard library for this that a lot of people can review,\u201d he told Wired. \u201cAnd if you use this library, you inherit all the security for free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governments Aren\u2019t Going to Like This <\/p>\n

While it\u2019s still early days for Encrypted Spaces, one thing is already known for sure: A project like this is likely to stoke the flames of long-running debates over encryption that have repeatedly put app developers and governments at odds. Just last week, Signal President Meredith Whittaker reiterated<\/a> that the company would leave the United Kingdom rather than comply with measures she views as undermining encryption and user privacy.<\/p>\n

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Signal President Meredith Whittaker threatens again to pull the encrypted messaging app out of the UK<\/p>\n

She tells @MishalHusain<\/a> why Keir Starmer’s approach to phone screening could usher in “mass surveillance” https:\/\/t.co\/TKxYzfhu7O<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/CEcLK2dB2R<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Bloomberg (@business) June 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is a long history of governments\u2019 general uneasiness with any sort of E2EE being made available to the general public going all the way back to the Crypto Wars of the 90s and ridiculous proposals of the time such as the infamous Clipper Chip<\/a>. The recent situation in the UK indicates that this uneasiness with the democratization of technology is unlikely to subside anytime soon. Additionally, the U.S. export-control directive forcing Anthropic to suspend access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models<\/a> for foreign nationals echoes the way strong encryption was once treated as a controlled export during the Crypto Wars.<\/p>\n