When Elon Musk says ‘jump’, there are lots of nerds out there who bend their knees and prepare for lift-off. On January 7, the multi-billionaire tweeted ‘Use Signal’, prompting 1.3 million downloads of the messaging app. Meanwhile, the share price of a totally unrelated bio-tech company called Signal Advance skyrockets. C’mon.
Four weeks in and 2021 has already been a wild ride for social platforms, what with Twitter transforming into a Trump-free zone and the fall of Parler. Now Facebook has tagged in too, hauling its big green prize-fighter into the ring with it. In January, the Facebook-owned WhatsApp released a new privacy policy, giving its users an ultimatum: accept our new terms or get out.
The updated policy demands Facebook and associated companies have access to WhatsApp user data, stating: “As part of the Facebook family of companies, WhatsApp receives information from and shares information with, this family of companies. We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings.” If the use of the word ‘family’ isn’t a big red flag, then what is?
It’s worth knowing that this latest monetizing move diverges somewhat from WhatsApp’s humble origins. Its founder Brian Acton applied for a job at Facebook in 2009. Rejected, he built WhatsApp with co-founder Jan Koum on a mantra of “No ads, no games, no gimmicks”. End-to-end encryption on the app purported to protect messages from being seen by anyone other than sender and receiver.
But in 2014, Mark Zuckerburg offered Acton and Koum $22 billion for the platform, sealed with two promises. Firstly, the pair would be under no pressure to monetize WhatsApp over the next five years. Secondly, Facebook promised that there would be no merging of user data between the platforms.
Unfortunately, at some point during the pinky-swearing process, Mark had his fingers crossed. Before the deal had been signed, Facebook was bending the agreed terms, with technology to merge data already in the planning stages. After less than two years, the merge was finalized, giving WhatsApp users the choice to opt into data sharing between Facebook and associated companies.
Acton told Forbes, “At the end of the day, I sold my company. I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.” Poor billionaire Acton. How could he have known Facebook had ulterior motives? Mark has such an honest face.
In 2018, Brian Acton left WhatsApp, $850 million poorer (still a billionaire though, don’t worry) and laden with a guilty conscience. As penance, he set up the Signal Foundation, funneling $50 million into Signal, the privacy-first, non-profit messaging service. Fast-forward to January 2021, and disillusioned WhatsApp users are flocking to the platform.
So, what are the benefits of the Signal app? The only personal information Signal needs is your mobile number, unlike WhatsApp which collects your name, device ID, user ID, purchase history, product interaction payment information and additional metadata.
Signal also uses its own crypto system called Signal Protocol that has since been adopted by Google and WhatsApp, among others. This system provides end-to-end encryption, so hackers, governments and Signal themselves can’t read your messages.
The Signal Protocol has been so popular with tech companies because it uses something called a ‘ratchet’ system. Other encryption systems allocate a permanent pair of keys to your device that together are used to ‘lock’ and ‘unlock’ your messages. But if your phone is hacked, all your messages can be decrypted using your private key. What the Signal Protocol does differently is allocate each message a temporary set of keys. These keys are combined with your permanent keys, so that every message you send can only be decrypted on your device.
Clearly if someone steals your phone, all this talk of virtual keys seems pointless. Whoever’s got your phone will have access to all your messages. Except Signal has an auto-delete function that bins your messages after a certain time. Unsentimental perhaps, but good for privacy. This is on top of the usual features like end-to-end encrypted voice and video call.
However, another platform has also reaped the rewards of the WhatsApp exodus. Telegram is a free messenger app with almost 500 million monthly users. Owned by Pavel Durov, affectionately known as the ‘Russian Zuckerburg’, Telegram has already received a lot of criticism for basic privacy infringements. Its location sharing feature has been likened to “publishing your home address online” and Telegram is not end-to-end encrypted, unlike Signal and even WhatsApp, storing messages in the cloud instead.
Telegram also collects everything from your name, contacts, user ID, phone number and IP address, giving access to your location and online identity. On paper, it sounds pretty bad, and the truth is: it is. When the only rationale for using a platform is that ‘it’s not Facebook’ then you should probably keep looking.
So, which is the most private: WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram? If Edward Snowden’s word is anything to go by, then Signal comes out on top when it comes to user privacy, although it’s still worth downloading a half-decent no-log VPN like HMA. A good VPN encrypts all the traffic to and from your device, so whilst you play trial and error with different messaging services, your data is yours and yours only.
HMA
