As the internet reached mobile devices, messaging applications that used the internet to send messages began to emerge like mushrooms. Over the years, WhatsApp has become the king of these platforms, since it was the first of all. Many others have been reaching the market but very few have known how to fight against WhatsApp.
What is the best way to fight? Offering features that no other platform offers. In this way, Telegram has managed to reach more than 500 million users (January 2021), for the 2.000 million WhatsApp. But, there is life beyond Telegram and WhatsApp, especially if what we are looking for is privacy. I'm talking about Signal.
Signal is an open source application that focuses on user security and privacy, like the Mozilla Foundation (Firefox). Both are non-profit organizations so they do not accept investments from large companies, only from individuals.
When Signal was born and for what purpose
Signal was not born with that name, but with Textsecure, a name that already implied where he was going. Moxie marlinspike, a computer specialist (he was the head of the Twitter security team) met with Stuart Anderson, a robotics specialist, created the company Whisper System from which they were born Textsecure (encrypted messaging) and Red Phone (encrypted voice calls).
In 2012, the company was renamed Open Whisper Systems. In a conference of the South by Southbest in March of 2014, Edward Snowden praised the operation and safety in terms of privacy it offered Textsecure. That same year the Electronic Frontier Foundation included the application among the safest in terms of messaging where there are also the secret telegram chats, RedPhone, Orbot, silent text among others.
WhatsApp's philosophy changed after its sale
In 2015 it included Textsecure y RedPhone in a single application named Signal. In 2018, one of the founders of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, announced that after his departure from Facebook (WhatsApp bought Facebook in 2014 for 19.000 million dollars) the creation of a non-profit organization, his first benefactor being Signal, who received 50 million dollars in order to maintain his independence and thus becoming a Foundation.
Moxie stated in that announcement:
Signal has never taken venture capital funds or sought investment, because we feel that putting profits first would be incompatible with building a sustainable project that puts users first.
As a consequence, Signal has suffered at times from our lack of resources or capacity in the short term, but we have always believed that those values would lead to the best possible experience in the long term.
Since 2020 it is the application recommended by the European Commission of instant messaging, because thanks to its operation and being open source, anyone can check how it works, what the security it offers and that all messages, conversations, calls and video calls are encrypted end-to-end.
Signal has always been considered by an application used by people who have something to hideHowever, nothing could be further from the truth. Both politicians and journalists use it regularly, in addition to a growing number of people who, finally, have realized that their personal data is not being commercialized as WhatsApp plans to do outside the European Union.
Is Signal safe? Don't confuse security with privacy
We should not confuse both terms, since security does not imply privacy. Signal is characterized by the application that places more emphasis on user privacy, using end-to-end encryption and without conversing at any time a copy of the conversations we have, just like WhatsApp (it uses the Signal protocol like Skype , Facebook Messenger and Google).
However, unlike WhatsApp, the company under the Facebook umbrella collects a large amount of data, data that it transfers to Facebook in order to target ads, which is what the company really lives from Mark Zuckerberg.
Nothing is 100% safe
In computing there is nothing 100% sure. Zero-Day vulnerabilities are those that are found in applications and / or operating systems from day one but have never been detected, hence they receive this name, since they are vulnerabilities that when detected, can be used in that same moment and it affects all versions of the application that have been released.
Telegram, meanwhile, only encrypt end-to-end secret chats. Normal chats are encrypted but not end-to-end, so along the way, any other friend could intercept it, but decrypting them could take a few years. Telegram developed its own protocol, MTProto, to encrypt your conversations.
Conversation backups
By not encrypting end-to-end conversations, Telegram allows us to access our conversations from any device without it being strictly necessary to have our smartphone turned on, as is the case with Signal and WhatsApp.
Additionally, by incorporating end-to-end encryption into secret chats, includes the most relevant Signal functionality, so if you want privacy and that your conversations are encrypted from end to end and Signal does not convince you, Telegram is the solution you are looking for. Of course, the secret chats will not be able to continue through other Telegram applications, only on the device, due to the type of encryption.
Signal source code is available to anyone who wants to audit your security via GitHub. Part of the Telegram source code is also Open Source, however, if we talk about WhatsApp, this code is not publicly available.
What data does Signal collect
Signal only collect phone number that we use to be able to use the service, since it is the only means of communication with other people, by not offering the possibility of using a nickname or nick as if we can do in Telegram.
Nor does it collect statistics on the use made by the user of the application, nor the terminal model, its location ... since it does not have the need to do so when do not trade with our data.
WhatsApp, like all Facebook companies, not only collects this and much more data, but also transfers that data to the parent company and the associated with the respective Facebook account in order to focus the ads that best suit our tastes, preferences ...
What special functions does Signal offer us?
Some of the functions that Signal offers us that we will not find in WhatsApp, but if in Telegram, they are:
- Block the ability to take screenshots (also available on Telegram).
- Show the message notification on the lock screen without the text.
- Prevent anyone else from registering your phone number.
- Show messages as confidential sender.