Google is adding a new app to company-managed Pixel phones, which allows IT admins to see all the RCS messages sent and received on specific devices.
This function replaces an older workaround that allowed carriers to report SMS messages, and only applies to Pixel devices that are owned by companies (via Android Central).
Regulate and innovate
It’s important to note that this change isn’t Google snooping on its users, or installing a backdoor into its end-to-end encrypted messaging service. Instead, it’s a change it’s been forced to make to satisfy regulatory requirements.
Regulations require that business messages are archived in case of future need. In legal cases, messages may be requested for legal discovery, or those messages may be subject to a freedom of information request. In previous times, device makers wouldn’t need to worry about this, as the information would be automatically archived by carriers and could be requested from them.
However, a new world armed with encrypted RCS messaging apps threatened to upend these regulations, as carriers would no longer be able to keep an eye on messages sent through their systems, due to end-to-end encryption.
So, Google has introduced a new element to its Messages app: the archival application.
This function has to be enabled by the IT team at your company, so it won’t be enabled on every company phone. But when it’s turned on, it will keep a record of every message sent and received through Google Messages, including whether that message was edited or deleted.
Importantly, the archival process takes place on the device itself. Google takes pains to stress that none of the information stored in the archival process is shared with Google, and neither is it placed on the internet. This way, the end-to-end encryption of the messaging app is kept in place, while also meeting regulatory requirements.
However, the IT department of the company that owns the phone can read the messages remotely, so it’s important to remember that.
A solution for a changing age
This archival process is an elegant solution to an emerging problem. For years now, the question of how regulations around recording business and governmental communications could exist in a world with encrypted messaging apps has been unanswered.
It wasn’t enough to try and stop businesses and governments from using these apps, as the British inquiries into COVID showed. Instead, solutions would clearly have to be found.
For now, this archival process is limited to just company-owned Pixel phones. However, expect this to expand to other phones as a way to ensure regulatory alignment.
