We wonder what is the best chat app for privacy, Signal or Telegram? The two in the last two weeks have grown exponentially (although more the first than the second) for everything that happened with WhatsApp and that update to the privacy terms that is bringing them down the street of bitterness.
And if we ask ourselves this question, it is because it is the best time to clarify what a chat app means today in our lives. Let's say that chat app is the one that stores our private messages. To make a simile, it would be the space of our home where we have private conversations with friends, family, couple and more. Then, we are going to allow an app like WhatsApp to enter our house to use those conversations and sell them to third parties? There is the kit of the question.
Signal does not enter your house, while Telegram does
It must be made clear that WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption just like Signal and TelegramThe only thing that is the second one that hardly shares data as specified if we go to the information provided by the three apps in the Apple App Store. These are the data:
- Signal:
- Contact
- Telegram:
- Contact
- Contacts
- Identifiers
- WhatsApp:
- Shopping
- Location
- Contacts
- Identifiers
- Diagnostics
- Financial information
- Contact
- User content
- Use of data
With these data in hand, You have to have them very "big" (and forgive me for the expression) so that WhatsApp intrudes in such a way in that home that we have previously used as simile and take all that data; although later it is justified with this publication.
Telegram or Signal for privacy?
But let's go to the keyword of this post: Telegram or Signal? Seeing that Telegram is already preparing to monetize the experience chat and since end-to-end or end-to-end encryption is only present when we generate private chats, we have no choice but to say that Signal is currently the most suitable for privacy terms.
In fact, Signal offers that end-to-end encryption by default for group video calls, multimedia content that we share and, of course, messages.
that is, that we will not have anyone there invisibly in our home taking notes what happens. While Telegram we would have it unless we kicked it saying: "hey, I'm generating a private chat with this contact or group."
Telegram barely takes data from us
True is that Telegram only takes three types of data: contact information, contacts and identifiers, so we can feel a little more comfortable with the privacy of our messages.
But it is true that if we go back to the simile of our home for the protection of those conversations, we have no choice but to use Signal; an app that We already taught you some of its virtues days ago, although It is quite far from the characteristics that Telegram has or Whatsapp.
The a priori advantages for the privacy of each one:
| Telegram | Signal | |
|---|---|---|
| Does not link identity with data | yes | No. |
| End-to-end encryption | yes in private chat | yes |
| Open source | No. | yes |
| Login with phone number | No. | yes |
| Lock by app pin | yes | yes |
| Temporary messages | yes in private chat | yes |
| Screenshot lock | yes | yes |
| Group video | No. | yes |
| Video notes | yes | No. |
| Personal cloud | No. | yes |
| Confidence sender | No. | yes |
| Record lock | No. | yes |
There are many more features that Telegram does have, but we have focused on determining those that are related to privacy, since it is the value by which we are measuring which of the two is a better app.
We stick with Signal, but let's not forget that Telegram was the app that protesters in Hong Kong used when they were fighting on the streets for its guidelines to safeguard privacy; other than that Durov has become a champion of privacy.
Now it will remain to see how it happened with Telegram, as Signal is gradually becoming more users, since in this aspect the one of Durov beats him. Now you: Signal or Telegram?
Whoever wrote this article uses Telegram? Because he does not know certain details of both applications.
First of all, what Signal does is what Telegram does with secret chats. That is, the entire Signal application is nothing more than a single functionality in Telegram. And that's it. There is no more scratching at Signal. It is as if you delete everything that is in Telegram and leave only the secret chats and say that it is the best and safest option. ? ♂? ♂? ♂? ♂
And second, the guy is unaware that Signal is a Californian company and therefore he is or will be obliged to give access to the data to any government agency in the United States, either by court order or by government requirement.
Signal is just another WhatsApp. Its only difference at the moment is that it does not share data with social networks because its owners do not have any social network ... at the moment. Right now it is like WhatsApp before being bought by Facebook. But as soon as there are enough people and reasons to spare, it will be obliged to give access to the data, like any American company.
And for that reason and for a thousand other reasons, Telegram will continue to be more secure. Telegram's encryption is of its own creation and the servers are encrypted with keys that will never be shared because Durov has no obligation to that government (at the moment). And they have been 7 years without anyone having broken the encryption even offering a reward for whoever succeeds.
Even Signal's encryption is an American patent. They don't even have to pressure Signal as a company to hand over the keys. They just have to put pressure on the creator of their encryption system.
In the table of advantages comparing both applications there are also a series of errors that I do not know if they are due to lack of knowledge or just to put shit on Telegram.
Hello Telegrammer,
First of all, thank you for all the time you have taken for your answer and to make your point of view very clear. It is appreciated.
Let's see, I have been using Telegram since the day it came out on Android, which is why I have been writing articles here for 8 years. Androidsis. It is an app that I know well and that I have not stopped praising in numerous articles, even when it was totally unknown and no one gave a dime for it; In fact I have it installed.
So I start from a good base to be able to put it face to face against Signal, an app that is exciting because by default it offers end-to-end encryption both in messages and in the content that one can share such as images, etc.
Now about secret chats. We can refer to the same words of the creators in a publication they made on the subject:
https://telegra.ph/Why-Isnt-Telegram-End-to-End-Encrypted-by-Default-08-14
They explain well how end-to-end encryption is not used by default so that it is easier to backup chats in the cloud and thus activate a series of connectivity and sharing features on Telegram.
And if Signal is another WhatsApp, I am sorry but I do not share the same opinion as other media. The good thing about WhatsApp when we all started using that app that for 1 euro a year allowed you to send chat messages as many as you wanted is because only WhatsApp existed.
Now, Signal is in the same as in its beginnings and in fact, as I well explained in the written article, one of the co-founders of WhatsApp swelled the coffers of Signal thanks to a generous donation. Signal does not owe anything to anyone, while we already know how Facebook brings them to WhatsApp.
I'm going to update the article with a screenshot taken from Android Police to show the differences on how each one takes the data and how not even Signal identifies the user; oh yes, and that capture is from the App Store where by obligation they have to reflect it.
To finish, in the article I reflect perfectly how Telegram has served so that the protesters in Hong Kong could communicate without interference from the police or anything, so I praise Telegram as a great app for privacy, but currently Signal wins it in this.
And this is the objective of the article, which is the best app for privacy. As in that table, as I explained well, there are not all the characteristics of each one, but the main differences in some functions related to privacy.
Again, I appreciate the time you have taken to comment in our midst and the tone you are using so that we can talk and discuss.
Kind regards, Manu.