The United Nations is moving toward better privacy and security as it says goodbye to Big Tech apps for good.
Following a competitive selection process, the United Nations International Computing Center (UNICC) has chosen British encrypted messaging platform Element to secure all communications – from written emails and chats to audio, voice calls and even video conferences.
UNICC has been responsible for providing information and communications technology systems for all United Nations organizations and programs for more than 50 years. The move to Element indicates that better privacy, security and flexibility are becoming increasingly important for organizations that process sensitive data.
Full control over data
The Element Server Suite reportedly differentiate itself above other apps as a secure end-to-end encrypted and digitally sovereign platform – two elements that IT leaders describe more and more as top priorities.
While the concept of encryption (the process of encrypting data into an unreadable form to prevent unauthorized access) may be familiar to many, digital sovereignty refers to the actual ownership of data.
“The whole point of Element, and the Matrix protocol it’s built on, is to give end users complete ownership and control over their data,” said Matthew Hodgson, CEO and co-founder of Element.
Hodgson explained that rather than blindly trusting a technology company to handle all its data correctly, UNICC now has a platform that it can self-host, manage and configure to its requirements in just a few clicks.
“The benefits of decentralization and federation to securely connect multiple servers and organizations are precisely relevant when we think about the work of the UN agencies,” he said.
We have already mentioned how UNICC is the key partner for digital and cybersecurity solutions within the United Nations framework. It is then responsible for deciding which digital tools to deploy across more than 90 partners and stakeholders.
As of today, April 22, 2024, these organizations have replaced all their email and chat systems with the Element app. In addition to written communications, all VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and video conferences now run via the Element infrastructure.
Fully hosted by UNICC itself through an Element Enterprise subscription, the Element suite also supports a number of features ideal for business use, such as advanced identity and access control (including Single Sign On support), auditing and reporting.
Like all Element apps, these are available for iOS, Android and Desktop.
“We are excited to work with Element to secure our communications with partners, replacing email, unapproved messaging apps and insecure video chat,” said Sameer Chauhan, UNICC Director. “Additionally, we expect this solution to serve as out-of-band support to facilitate our incident response and crisis management plans.”
UNICC is not the first organization to increase the privacy and security of its communications infrastructure by switching from secure Big Tech apps to Element apps.
At the beginning of April, the Swedish public sector also said goodbye to Big Tech, when major telecom provider Tele2 unveiled its new secure online collaboration hub. Germany has also worked with Element to build a digitally sovereign and open source solution called Open desk.
Hodgson told me at the time about this push for alternative communication apps: “As a government, you simply don’t want your data to be on a platform that is owned by some seller. On a day-to-day level, this means that end-user organizations are not dependent on a large technology company, locked into a proprietary platform.”