With concerns about snooping on the internet, BitTorrent has just released an public Alpha of its new chat app: Bleep. The instant messaging client is an attempt to use P2P technology to create a chat network that doesn’t pass through any servers; thus, making it harder for anyone to eavesdrop on the conversation.
Most chat apps these days send message through the company server, which then passes it on. This allows the company to archive chat logs for users; but also leaves it open to surveillance. Hackers are still able to see who is conversing with who and how often, even if the data is encrypted to prevent messages being read. This becomes an issue when there are foreign governments watching the flow of data to spy on just about everyone.
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To overcome this, Bleep will remove the need for an intermediary and directly connect two users. This should, in theory, make for a more secure conversation as only the two people involved in the chat will know that it is going on. Spying on this sort of communication would require hackers to be aware of where on the internet the two people are.
For now, the app is still in its Alpha phase and users are advised to set it to only run on WiFi until they can work out problems with data usage. It is available on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Android at the moment; while an iOS version will be made available once the app is finished.
[Source: The Verge]
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