WhatsApp vs Telegram vs. Signal, which messaging app is more secure?
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After recent changes announced by the WhatsApp in your privacy policy, many users have been looking for other messenger options. As a result, in addition to Telegram, which for some time has been the main alternative to the Facebook app, Signal has also emerged, with a focus on privacy. All three rely on encrypted conversations – but, after all, which Is messaging app more secure?
While this was already an important question, it has been gaining more attention after WhatsApp announced that, among other changes, would share its users' data with Facebook. Despite the social network already owning the messenger for almost seven years, the novelty was not at all well received.
In the statement, WhatsApp even informed that users who did not accept the new policy could not continue using the platform.
Although WhatsApp never stated that it would share the content of the conversations, explaining that the data exchange would only involve profile information (name, location, photo, etc.), many unhappy users are already downloading Telegram and Signal.
If you also want to migrate from messenger, follow the comparative below and understand which messaging app is more secure. In addition to privacy, we will also cover other features that stand out in all three. Check out:
whatsapp vs telegram
Launched in 2013, the Telegram has roots in Russia. From the beginning, the application promises to be more secure than existing messengers, such as Messenger and WhatsApp, both from the Facebook. To fulfill this promise, Telegram has secret chats, messages that automatically disappear, encryption for messages and calls, among others.
Despite being famous with those interested in privacy, Telegram does not work with encryption in the same way as Signal and Whatsapp. In these two applications, when one user A send a message to a user B, before leaving A's phone, all content to be sent is encrypted.
This encryption, which can be understood as a scrambling of the original message, can only be undone on B's phone, as only B has the bar code necessary to carry out this process. In this way, WhatsApp and Signal ensure that only the sender and recipient have access to the content of the messages, which also applies to group conversations, media (images, documents, audio, etc.), calls and video calls.
On Telegram, on the other hand, this type of encryption is only offered on secret chats. In addition to only taking place between two people, these private conversations need to be initiated in a specific way. Instead of opening the recipient's contact and simply typing the message, the user needs to access a menu, open a secret chat and only then decide who to talk to privately.
Em common conversations, even in groups, Telegram only offers what it calls “user-server” encryption. And this is where the controversy resides:
As with WhatsApp, any message sent on Telegram needs to leave the A's phone, pass through the company's servers and only then reach the B's phone. The difference, however, is that while in WhatsApp the message is encrypted throughout this process, in Telegram the conversation is always decrypted when it arrives on the servers. In other words, Telegram yes you can read your messages, although he claims to have no interest in it.
Telegram is able to read your conversations because “user-server” encryption uses keys that the company has access to. Remember when we said that encryption is like a “shuffling” of messages? So, both to encode and to decode the conversations, it is necessary to have a specific key, as if it were a password.
While on WhatsApp and Signal only the sender and recipient have these keys, on Telegram the company can also access them.
Although Telegram vehemently denies accessing messages, this factor raises other concerns about the security of the Russian app. This is because, once they manage to invade the company's servers, hackers they could read the conversations of whomever they wanted.
Signal promises total protection
And if you were disappointed with Telegram, don't think that WhatsApp is perfect. Despite ensuring full protection of conversations while they are taking place, Facebook messenger is less safe for messages that are backed up.
If you have an iPhone and you save your messages to iCloud, they remain encrypted and secure. On the other hand, if you use Android and save your conversations in Google Drive, they are not protected Similarly.
It is against this backdrop that the Signal presents itself as a third way. In addition to selling itself as the safest of the three, the app offers all functions that are successful on WhatsApp or Telegram, including:
- Ephemeral messages (which automatically disappear some time later);
- End-to-end encryption for all types of conversations;
- Voice or video calls, including group calls;
- Two-step verification;
- Sending media (images, audios, voice notes, documents and others);
- figurines;
- Apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and Mac (unlike rivals, Signal does not have a web version).
Signal claims to be more secure because, in addition to offering end-to-end encryption, in which only users can decode messages, simply there is no service backup. In practice, messages are only saved on the recipient's and sender's cell phones, and at the same time there is no risk of them being accessed while they are in the cloud, there is no way to get them back if you change your phone.
In fact, the solution found by Signal solves the problem we mentioned with WhatsApp. By removing the function backup, however, the app also no longer offers a essential resource for those who value their conversations. Once again, we see that privacy comes at a price.
Which messaging app is more secure?
As we have seen throughout this article, Signal is the only of the three messengers capable of fully protecting your conversations. compared to the Telegram, Signal and WhatsApp win, as they prevent even the company from accessing chats.
In comparison with the WhatsApp, Signal also gets the better of it, because although the backup function is lacking, this is a way to ensure that not even the services responsible for storing the conversations will have access to its content. Despite this indisputable victory, it is worth noting that you it is not necessary Switch apps for more privacy:
On WhatsApp, your messages are only vulnerable when they are stored in the Google Drive. With that, if you have an iPhone, you can rest assured that, even when saved to iCloud, no one but you has access to your conversations.
In the case of those who use Android, it is also not necessary to switch to Signal, just deactivate the resource of backup automatic. As Signal does not have this function, you would be without it. Is not it?
And for those who want to stay on Telegram, the issue of privacy is also available. While the app can read your “normal” conversations, it is not able to do so in secret chats. Secret Telegram conversations are secured with the same technology used in Signal and WhatsApp.
Below is a summary of the main security features of each messaging app:
Since secret chats are also not saved in backup, there is even a risk that they will be vulnerable after going to the cloud. As with Signal, however, this feature will prevent you from recovering your secret conversations if you change your cell phone.
Privacy or practicality?
See how simple it is? Even if you have to give up some conveniences, including the possibility of recovering your messages, it is perfectly possible to have a safer life on WhatsApp and Telegram. It is worth mentioning, however, that Signal not only offers privacy-oriented functions, but has also been fully built under that principle.
For starters, the app is developed and maintained by signal foundation, a non-profit organization that, consequently, has interests quite different from those of Facebook. In addition, the team responsible for creating the messenger is the same that created the encryption protocols used in WhatsApp and Telegram, in the case of secret chats.
With this, several personalities defending online privacy, as well as all people who fight for a less centralized network, encourage migration to the app. In short, at a time when conventional networks are accused of committing various abuses against their users, adopting Signal becomes almost a political act.
In the last week, the messenger launched in 2014, and which until then was unknown to the general public, passed 50 million downloads on the Play Store, the Android application store. Likewise, names with influence on technology, such as Elon Musk, defended the use of Signal. the digital activist Edward Snowden, known for dismantling the US-led international spy scheme in 2013, has claimed to have used Signal since the app was launched.
And you, do you think which messaging app is safer? Remember that you can interact with us using the comment field below. Your feedback is important to us!
Sources: How To Geek, BGR, Mashable
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