Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal: which is the best for security and privacy?
Spoiler Alert: it’s Signal!
The Intercept and Gizmodohave published a comparison of the major messaging apps , focusing in particular on issues of privacy and security.
I try to summarize them both.
Facebook, owner of WhatsApp, can not read the content of messages and other communications that pass from the app (due of e2e encryption), but it records information associated with successfully delivered messages and the mobile phone numbers involved in the messages, and could pass them to the governments and to investigators.
In short, if you have ever exchanged messages with someone who gets into trouble with the law, you can not pretend not to know him relying on the privacy of WhatsApp communications: a copy of messages is stored on devices of senders and recipients, and in some case (if the user activates it) stored on Google or iCloud.
And the winner is…Signal!
It’s open source and available for iOS and Android, free of commercial partnerships or advertising (it is supported by user donations).
It provides full encryption (end-to-end), does not collect metadata (only the datetime of the last connection to the server).
The address book is read locally by the app, but is encrypted before sending it to the Signal server and the data are not collectible.
The conversations data are not stored on the cloud.
A problem? Very few users!