After an ultimatum from WhatsApp that a lot of its users didn’t like, the app postponed the modification of its rules on information exchange with its central company, Facebook. This temporary rectification did not prevent the stampede of users towards other messaging applications and now, with the difficulty of private processing on the table, it’s time to weigh which application meets the stress of everyone. Telegram offers many functions and has always been the choice, walking alongside WhatsApp for the past few years. Such has been the influence that the Facebook application has been implementing new functions that Telegram already included.
On the opposite hand, another beluga is seen on the horizon, Signal, probably the smallest amount known. Both share some functions and mechanics, however, they differ in terms of the info that links each user. All three are available in both the Play Store and therefore the App Store, have group chat functions, have cross-platform messaging, and permit you to exchange files, photos, and videos. They also share encryption for text messages, voice and video calls, specifically WhatsApp decided to use an equivalent end-to-end encryption protocol technology, called Open Whispers Systems, after its success in Signal.
TYPES OF ENCRYPTION
While in Telegram, end-to-end encryption is merely activated within the case of using ‘secret chats’, in WhatsApp and Signal it comes by default altogether conversations. So what quiet encryption does Telegram use in conventional conversations?
Telegram breaks down the info and stores it on servers in several countries, also separating the encryption keys (codes with which a message is decoded, making it legible) from the info. During this way, court orders from all the countries where Telegram information is stored would be necessary to deliver specific data.
USER DATA
WhatsApp is far and away from the appliance that links the foremost data to every user, not only personal but even habits and consumption. for instance, the link telephone number to ID, contacts, device ID, purchase history, telephone number, location, email, and more.
For its part, Telegram links the user ID with a telephone number, contacts, and therefore the account name (a nickname that you simply can use to speak with people without having to supply them together with your phone number). That link to the contacts is often useful for once you change devices or use it on the pc, it accelerates access.
In the case of Signal, the sole data that links to the user’s account is the telephone number. it’s its pros, if you modify tons of devices it is often somewhat uncomfortable, but in terms of privacy, it’s almost unmatched.
Also Read: Move WhatsApp messages from iPhone to Android
PRIVACY AND SELF-CENSOR
Both WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal share a mess of functions, therefore the migration is sort of simple, because of interfaces that will be familiar to every other. Although, for instance, there’s a specific function that Signal has that you simply won’t find in the other, the pixelation of faces. the appliance itself offers the choice of blurring the faces of the folks that appear during a photograph. From the most Signal interface, select the camera-shaped icon at rock bottom right, take a photograph or select it from the gallery, press the pixelated circle that appears love it features a cross inside, and therefore the application will offer to pick the face you would like to blur or roll in the hay automatically. This function also can be wont to pixelate posters, marks, or tattoos.
DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS
Specifically, the features that you simply won’t find in Signal are Video notes, animated stickers, channels, and mass groups (up to 200,000 participants). These functions are included by Telegram, although it’s a drawback that has been receiving complaints since the creation of the appliance. When you create a Telegram account for the primary time, it notifies all of your contacts, who were already registered within the application, through an immediate message. Something quite indiscreet and uncomfortable. this feature is often disabled, but it’s enabled by default.
CONTACTS
Considering that Signal has most of the functions that you simply found in WhatsApp, some aspects can make the size tilt to at least one side or the opposite. For instance, the contacts, that is, the appliance that your family, your friends, your co-workers, and even your bosses plan to use. WhatsApp had been the bulk application, so now we’ll need to see what alternative application your close circles are choosing or take the initiative to inform them what advantages all offers (or share this same article).
ILLUSTRIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS
Shortly after the announcement by WhatsApp of the update in its terms and conditions, a tweet from the well-known tycoon Elon Musk was enough to form Signal and gain thousands of users. The influence of Musk’s words on Twitter on the longer term of shares on the stock exchange (both his own company and others) is quite known and during this case, he only had to mention “use Signal”. Not only Musk has positioned himself in favor of this application for privacy reasons. Signal was recommended by authorities like the Electronic Border Foundation, a non-profit organization that defends civil liberties within the digital world. Also, another well-known figure within the fields of secrecy, espionage, and privacy, Edward Snowden, offered an unquestionable argument for trusting this application: “Here’s a reason: i exploit it a day and that i haven’t died yet.
OPEN CODE VS LARGE COMPANIES
When delving beyond the functions and chassis of those three applications, that is, pulling the thread and analyzing their origins, it’s normal to drown during a sea of purchases, big company names, and founders migrating from one to a different. That WhatsApp is owned by Facebook are some things that the appliance itself declares as soon because it is started. For its part, Signal, previously referred to as TextSecure, was created in 2010 by computer security specialist Matthew Rosenfeld, also known by his pseudonym Moxie Marlinspike, and Stuart Anderson, a robotics specialist.
Years later, it was bought by Twitter and its main creator then founded the new Open Whisper Systems, to continue with the developments. The Open Whispers Systems encryption system was so efficient that WhatsApp itself adopted it. Later, one of the founders of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, left Facebook and invested $ 50 million in Signal. In the end, everything is related to the tech giants.
Telegram, however, goes a bit on its terms, it is an open-source application founded by two Russian brothers, Nikolai and Pavel Durov whose development team is currently based in Dubai, since the regulation of the technologies of the information in its country, Russia, requires to provide information about its users and the founders did not accept.
Telegram’s operating protocols are open, that is, the computer code on which the application is based and how it has been developed can be known. A philosophy that it shares with Signal, whose code is available on GitHub in both its mobile versions (Android and iOS) and in its desktop version. In the case of WhatsApp, this type of information, its code, is what is called a ‘black box’. All its ‘guts’, algorithms, and how they work are opaque and inaccessible to both users and ordinary mortals.
