Billions use popular messaging apps like Whatsapp daily to communicate via text, audio, picture and video. Whatsapp and competitors Signal and Telegram offer encrypted communications which prevent governments, police, and cyber criminals from accessing those communications. All three offer group chats and a disappearing messages option to automatically delete messages. Whatsapp and Signal support group calls, while Telegram is rolling out this function. With few functional differences among Whatsapp, Telegram and Signal, why choose Signal? In short, privacy.
Whatswrong with Whatsapp?
On February 8 May 15, 2021, Whatsapp will terminate accounts that have not accepted its new Terms of Service. The new terms require sharing Whatsapp financial transactions and payments, contacts list, usage data, location, phone identifiers, and various “metadata” with Facebook. Former Facebook fact-checker Snopes tried to control the damage, but downloads of Signal and Telegram soared. As a result, Facebook delayed the termination date. Many were already upset about the Whatsapp bug that shared phone numbers in Google Search results.
Telegram
Pavel Durov. owns and funds Telegram Messenger. Known as Russia’s Zuckerberg, Durov started Russia’s biggest social network, Vkontakte (aka “VK”). He moved Telegram to Berlin after the company was blocked by Russia for refusing to give its encryption algorithm to the government. Russia and other governments claim terrorists were using the app to plan attacks, but no Big Tech companies blocked it or removed it from their app stores. The Coalition for a Safer Web sued Apple for failing to remove Telegram from its app store “despite Apple’s knowledge that Telegram is being used to intimidate, threaten, and coerce members of the public.”
Durov took advantage of Whatsapp’s change to encourage users to switch to Telegram, asking Facebook to respect users. He recommends Android over Apple to give users choice over which apps they can install. Durov claims Telegram is open source and regularly reviewed by security companies. Like Whatsapp, Telegram experienced security issues and exposed information on 15 million users.
Why not Telegram? Durov raised questions about freedom of speech after selling VK “to a businessman close to the Kremlin.” In December, 2020, Durov announced that the company is now selling ads on Telegram. Some believe he is preparing to take Telegram public. Most importantly, Telegram turns off encryption by default and stores messages in the cloud.
Signal
Signal Messenger LLC develops the open-source Signal Messenger. The company receives funding from the Signal Technology Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in California. Whatsapp co-founder Brian Acton joined Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike after Facebook acquired Whatsapp. Acton told followers to #deleteFacebook for selling ads to conservative political organizations.
Signal evolved from the TextSecure and RedPhone apps originally developed by Whisper Systems, which was founded by Marlinspike and Stuart Anderson. Shortly after acquiring Whisper Systems, Twitter shutdown RedPhone. After Twitter released both TextSecure and then RedPhone as open source projects, Marlinspike left Twitter to start Open Whisper Systems (OWS). OWS managed the TextSecure and RedPhone open source projects and consolidated them into the Signal Protocol. OWS worked with Whatsapp to include its Signal Protocol for secure messaging into Whatsapp. Google Allo and Facebook Messenger also use the Signal Protocol.
Many governments, politicians, and protesters use Signal to keep communications. Issues with security have been resolved quickly. Signal fixed the eavesdropping exploit immediately. When a security firm reported it broke Signal’s encryption, Marlinspike pointed out that the effort requires access to messages without breaking the encryption.
