Is WhatsApp as safe as Facebook claims? Are Telegram more secure? We discuss what you must be aware of about these apps prior to making the switch.
The popular instant message platform, WhatsApp, lost the trust of many loyal users after it announced what seemed to be drastic modifications to their privacy policies early in this year.
It appeared as if accepting the changes would be a sign that WhatsApp could be able to share users’ private chat messages to Facebook the parent company of WhatsApp.
But this was an error and the change actually referred to chats between businesses that don’t enjoy the same level of security like chats with friends and relatives. However, you might need to find out if WhatsApp is secure to use or not.
If you’re wondering whether other apps, like Telegram, could be a better choice We’ll tell you the information you should be aware of about Telegram along with WhatsApp’s encrypted as well as methods of collecting data.
Do you think Telegram is safer than WhatsApp?
Telegram operated by the Russian-born Pavel Durov is just as popular as WhatsApp with over 500 million active users.
Durov hasn’t shied away from attacking the security issues of WhatsApp as well as other competitors and even asserting that WhatsApp is unsafe to use, and that Telegram provides better privacy to its users.
But what most users do not know is that in contrast to WhatsApp, Telegram only provides end-to-end encryption only for two-person “Secret Chats. In default, messages don’t receive this level of security. This implies that you can assume that they’re private, but in fact, it’s possible that someone might be able to see the messages.
It’s because they’re only secured (meaning your messages turn into gibberish to anyone who tries at reading the messages) between the device of the user with Telegram’s servers. However, they’re not encrypted on these servers. The chance of someone infiltrating those servers and stealing your messages isn’t high but it’s there.
WhatsApp On its side provides the ability to secure chats from end-to-end between two users and group chats, and now, chat backups as well.
The issue of encryption isn’t the only one you’ll need to consider However, it is important to think about.
Also, there’s the information that each app stores and collects about you personally.
Telegram has stated that in their privacy policies that it collects less information than WhatsApp and also stores information such as the IP address of your device and the history of username’s modifications for up to 12 years.
WhatsApp is an alternative that gathers more information about you, including personal data like your location, your phone number, and the device’s ID. Unless you choose to opt-out from sharing this kind of data, it is automatically transferred to Facebook.
However, messages, as well as voice or video calls, are completely secured. One of WhatsApp’s FAQs, says that “…we will always secure your private conversations by encrypting them from beginning to end which means that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook is able to see encrypted messages.”
Do I need to switch between WhatsApp for Telegram?
You now realize that WhatsApp is generally the safer option for sending photos, messages, as well as videos than Telegram especially when you communicate in groups often. WhatsApp also offers the same encryption from end-to-end for video and voice calls.
The only reason you could consider abandoning WhatsApp for good is that you don’t feel confident about it, or don’t like the data that is collected outside of encrypted messages. It’s also it is the case that Telegram doesn’t restrict users to only using it on only one phone as WhatsApp does (though it is now possible to utilize WhatsApp for up to four other phones.)
It’s also important to remember that, even though Telegram is equally popular as WhatsApp in terms of its users, it could aren’t the exact users that you’ve come across on WhatsApp So if you do decide to switch you might need to convince your family and friends to switch to Telegram also.
There are several reasons to abandon WhatsApp to switch to Telegram however to us WhatsApp is still the preferred messaging application to use due to its system-wide, end-to-end encryption. If data sharing and data collection with Facebook does not appeal to you, do not think about it. Telegram isn’t your only choice. The signal is a different option that has end-to-end encryption as a default and is open source too.
