In 2020 the world of messaging, VoIP calling, and video calling has literally exploded. On a corporate and business level, giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Zoom, have made it the masters with their stocks that have literally exploded on the stock exchange, while Apple and Facebook which, like small children, have been fighting to the sound of user privacy claim.
In reality, the real blow that Facebook suffered was from Europe with all the privacy and security issues of WhatsApp brought to the surface. And no one stood by, with WhatsApp and Facebook significantly losing users and with privacy-friendly opensource applications finally finding the well-deserved limelight.
Choose your privacy level. With Signal or Telegram, you can’t go wrong
The main problem so far has been that no one really cared about their privacy while using the messaging apps. If it hadn’t all been brought to light by the European Union’s data protection rules, most likely we wouldn’t even be here discussing it.
We do not want to question the good faith of companies or anything else regarding this matter, we have always advised using privacy-friendly opensource messaging applications such as Signal and Telegram. And, now more than ever, we are here to reiterate the concept and recommend those same applications again.
Choose Signal for maximum security and privacy, go with Telegram if you want to maintain an excellent level of security and privacy, but also have many more or less useful and surrounding features. Signal gives you the state-of-the-art end-to-end encryption (powered by the open-source Signal Protocol) that keeps your conversations secure. Telegram is so simple you already know how to use it, messages are heavily encrypted and can self-destruct. It lets you access your chats from multiple devices and has no limits on the size of your media and chats.
Privacy and security with other WhatsApp alternatives that respect your privacy
If you don’t trust our judgment – as it should be – and wish to have more alternatives to WhatsApp, then you need a broader retrospective on messaging applications that respect your privacy and security. Here then is that the guys at ProtonMail, one of the most respectful email service – secure and encrypted email – providers of your privacy, have prepared a very comprehensive comparison that examines the other noteworthy messaging applications.
News that WhatsApp has been sharing large amounts of highly personal data with Facebook since 2016 has led a large number of unhappy users to look for an alternative messaging app that genuinely respects their privacy. At Proton, we view end-to-end encryption as a core requirement for any messenger app that claims to be secure and private. This means messages are encrypted on your device and can only be decrypted on the device of the intended recipient. WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, so the actual messages are therefore secure on the platform. But this does nothing to stop Facebook from abusing metadata: information about whom you communicate with, from where, at what time, how often, and from which device. Open source code is another important indicator that a service is secure. By publishing an app’s code publicly, anyone can examine it to ensure the app is doing what it is supposed to be doing. We believe open source is one of the best indicators that an app can be trusted. We have therefore limited the following list of best WhatsApp alternatives to open source messaging apps that use end-to-end encryption (E2EE).
Best WhatsApp alternatives that respect your privacy – ProtonMail
So there are no more excuses, using WhatsApp again in 2021 doesn’t really make sense anymore. Whether you are privacy-conscious or not, whether you care about message security and encryption, it doesn’t matter, Facebook’s messaging app should be banned. Point.
You have all the tools to decide which app is best for your needs, and if you are still unable to make a decision, trust us: Signal or Telegram to be on the safe side, without complicating your life too much. We hope we have been helpful.
Useful pages, resources, and tools
WhatsApp alternatives that respect your privacy – Hacker News – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26142510
Best WhatsApp alternatives that respect your privacy – ProtonMail – https://protonmail.com/blog/whatsapp-alternatives/
WhatsApp-Facebook data-sharing transparency under review by EU – TechCrunch – https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/18/whatsapp-facebook-data-sharing-transparency-under-review-by-eu-dpas-after-ireland-sends-draft-decision/
Signal is a simple, powerful, and secure messenger – Signal App – https://signal.org/en/
Telegram a new era of messaging – Telegram App and Web – https://telegram.org/