Last week, we learned that the F.B.I Accessed Defendant’s Deleted Signal Messages on their iPhone, even if that user has completely deleted the app from their device. It wasn’t that the FBI was able to find the messages on the device themselves; Instead, it turns out they were able to pull incoming signal texts from the defendant’s push notification database. If you’re like most people, you probably had no idea that devices like the iPhone have such a push notification database and can be used to recover deleted messages. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to protect yourself and make sure that no one can pull sensitive information from this space on your iPhone or any device that receives sensitive notifications.
It is unclear how the push notifications database works, or whether notifications delete their information from the clearing database. But we can probably get some insight from it Blog post by the Objective View Foundation (admittedly from 2018), which highlighted a problem with signal messages on the Mac. The post reads: “In short, anything displayed as a notification (yes, including ‘invisible’ signal messages) in the macOS Notification Center is recorded by the OS.” It appears that a similar loophole was used to retrieve data from iOS notifications in a recent FBI investigation.
So, how can you protect yourself? The safest method is to turn off notifications entirely, which will prevent any information from being saved to this database, but that’s not practical for most people. Most of us want to be alerted when we get a new email, message or an important update in an app. However, you can prevent your device from displaying material Messages in notifications prevent this information from appearing in the database. When you do this, each of your notifications will look something like, “You have a new message,” as opposed to: “Romance Parab: My Netflix password is Lifehacker.” Again, it’s not clear how this database works, or which platforms have the same database as the iPhone, but for the sake of privacy and security, I’ve listed the steps below for most major device platforms:
Protect sensitive notifications on iPhone
Your iPhone allows you to hide the content of messages from all your app notifications. You can enable this by going to Settings > Notifications > Show previews and choose Never. You also have the option to disable notification previews for specific apps. To do this, go to Settings > NotificationsScroll down, and tap the name of the app you want to hide alert previews for. choose Show Previews > NeverAnd repeat the step with every other app for which you want to hide notifications.
Remove information from notification database on Mac
Credit: Pranaya Parab
Even on your Mac, you can hide notification previews globally or for individual apps. First, go to System Settings > Notifications. Click on the Next drop-down menu Show previews and choose Never. This notification will disable previews completely. Alternatively, you can scroll down, select any app from the list and click Show Previews > Never To disable previews for individual applications.
If you want to purge notifications from the database on your Mac, you can install a free app Byewhich was developed by The Objective Sea Foundation following his findings. It allows you to view and remove all information stored on your Mac’s notification database. You can click View the message To view the stored data, then Remove Msgs to purge it from your Mac.
Keep sensitive information away from Android notifications
Android has slightly different ways though To hide notification previews on lock screenThere aren’t many options to disable these previews when the phone is unlocked. You’ll find it easier to disable notification previews individually from each app’s settings page, as opposed to finding a toggle that works across Android.
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To disable notifications on the lock screen, go to Settings > Notifications > Notifications on the lock screenand close Show sensitive content. You can also enable Hide silent notifications in status bar And close too Show silent notifications. Some granular options are available under Settings > Notifications > App NotificationsSo be sure to check that out as well. These settings pages may differ on your Android phone due to manufacturer customization.
Clear notification information in Windows
Unfortunately, Windows doesn’t have a global setting to disable notification previews, but you can hide previews from the lock screen. To disable notification previews in Windows, open the Start menu and click the gear icon next to the Power button. This will open the Settings app. go to System > Notifications > Notifications. disable Show notifications on lock screen. Next, scroll down and select each app for which you want to hide previews and enable it Hide content when notifications are on the lock screen.
Additionally, you’ll have to rely on notification settings in individual apps to disable previews. I have listed some popular options below.
Hide sensitive content from notifications in popular messaging apps
Popular messaging apps allow you to disable notification previews through in-app settings. This is just as effective as using your device’s system settings to disable notification previews, but I mention it here in case your operating system doesn’t allow you to disable notification previews easily:
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In WhatsApp, you can go to the app’s settings, tap Instructions and disable Show preview.
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If you’re using Signal, tap the profile icon in the top-left corner and go to Settings > Notifications. choose showUnder “Notification Content”. On the next page, the safest option is to be selected No name or content.
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You can also do this in Telegram’s settings. go to Notifications and sounds > Private chatsand disable Message preview. You can do the same thing under Group chats Page in Notification Settings.
