Tech mogul Elon Musk -- known as widely for slinging cars into the sun's orbit as he is for advocating against COVID-19 safety measures -- took to Twitter last week to slam Facebook over its latest privacy policy updates for its supposedly secure encrypted messaging app WhatsApp.

Both of the encrypted messaging apps have been found to have security bugs over the years that have been resolved.

Here are the basics of Signal you should know if you're interested in using the secure messaging app.

For a deeper dive into the potential pitfalls and limitations of encrypted messaging apps, CNET's Laura Hautala's explainer is a life-saver

Despite the buzz around the term, end-to-end encryption is simple: Unlike normal SMS messaging apps, it garbles up your messages before sending them, and only ungarbles them for the verified recipient

For years, the core privacy challenge for Signal lay not in its technology but in its wider adoption

Sending an encrypted Signal message is great, but if your recipient isn't using Signal, then your privacy may be nil

Now that Musk and Dorsey's endorsements have sent a surge of users to get a privacy booster shot, however, that challenge may be a thing of the past.