Signal has better privacy policies than WhatsApp or Telegram — here’s why
Telegram
Telegram has been one of the biggest WhatsApp rivals — even before the latter’s privacy policy change. The platform — approaching 500 million users — has a lot of unique features that make it a popular choice for a WhatsApp alternative. One of the most celebrated features of Telegram is that you can avoid giving your phone number and use your username to add people.
If we look at the app’sprivacy policy, it collects your phone number and contacts when you sign up. In addition to this, the app will also be able to access your username and profile picture. Optionally, if you want to use two-factor authentication using email, the company will capture that data. However, the company claims that the collected data is not used to serve you ads.
While this is mostly standard stuff, Telegram is a cloud chat service, which means, unlike WhatsApp, you can use it on multiple devices and your chats are always synced. While the app uses client-to-server encryption, your chats are not end-to-end encrypted.
Technically, anyone with access to Telegram’s servers could read your chats. The app’s moderators and automated algorithms use this to prevent spam and abuse on the platform. The app also collects basic device data and IP addresses for moderation.
The only way to ensure no one reads your chats is to use Telegram’s secret chat feature that applies end-to-end encryption. So, whatever you send in the secret chat is protected.
The company allows bots to interact with you on the platform, and by default, privacy mode is enabled so that they can’t read your chat. But if a bot has been added as an admin of the group, it’ll be able to read your messages — even if it isn’t directed towards it. While the app allows bots to facilitate payments, all the transactions are handled by third-party providers and the company doesn’t store your financial data.
You can read Telegram’s privacy policyhere. Heimdal Security also hasa good technical breakdownof the app’s security protocols.
Signal
Signal is an open-source app managed by a non-profit entity. The app supports end-to-end encryption for all features, meaning no one can read your chats or snoop on your calls.
Its privacy policy suggests it just uses your phone number for registration and after that point, it knows nothing about your account. For contact discovery the app sendstruncatedcryptographically hashedphone numbers; names of the contacts or any other information is neither transmitted nor stored on the app’s server.
Credit: Signal
In addition to this, Signal has a ton of other privacy features, such as screen security to prevent the app preview from appearing in the app switcher, so no one could look at your messages over your shoulder. You can also set account and registration PINs for extra security.
Because of these security restrictions, Signal allows only P2P backup transfer on iOS and manual back up on Android.
You can read Signal’s full privacy policyhere.
Conclusion
WhatsApp’s new privacy policy hints that the app will collect a lot of data and it will be shared with Facebook, which doesn’t have a good track record of handling user data.
In terms of its alternatives, Telegram collects less data, but it doesn’t have end-to-end encryption. While the app may not be reading all your messages, you need to keep this in mind if you’re conveying sensitive data.
Signal is a bit more secure if you count the end-to-end encryption for all chats, but you might lose some of the features. Choose your fighter.
Story byIvan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.“Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
