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What are the Security reasons behind switching from WhatsApp to Signal? – Guide
WhatsApp is one of the most popular and widely used messaging apps in India, but the company has recently come under fire for its new privacy policy. Several people switched to Signal for privacy reasons, even as WhatsApp reiterated that all chats are encrypted and cannot be accessed by it or Facebook. Signal is a private messaging app that not only offers end-to-end encryption but also offers privacy focus features and collects minimal user data. Signal is seeing a huge influx of users switching from WhatsApp as users protest WhatsApp’s new privacy policies, a move that also received a significant boost when Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted “Use Signal” .
But if you are just starting to use the privacy-focused messaging app, there are a few features you should know. WhatsApp took a step up its security game, rolling out end-to-end encryption to its 700 million users earlier this year. Open Whisper System’s Signal, released in 2014, is relatively new to the game, but it has won over many security-conscious fans due to its great encryption. For the uninitiated, many of the private messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Google Allo use the Open Whisper System secure protocol to enforce encryption.
WhatsApp does not encrypt metadata
“Metadata describes other data. It provides information about the content of a specific article. For example, an image may contain metadata that describes the image’s size, color depth, image resolution, when the image was created, and other data.”
Likewise, in the context of messages, metadata means the data about the actual text message, which may include the sender’s name. phone number, recipient phone message number, date and time. At first glance, discarding message metadata is easy as it may seem trivial. But make no mistake. Using metadata, researchers can create a network that describes who and when the person is communicating. For example, in 2013, Microsoft’s research team published a paper describing a system for recognizing your age, gender, and sexuality based solely on the things you like on Facebook. Pretty scary, right?
Even if WhatsApp cannot read your actual message, it can share the message metadata to comply with the law. Legal authorities can analyze this data to find out the date, time and who you were in contact with. Signal, the good guy, is proud to acknowledge that he encrypts this metadata so that when the time comes, he has virtually nothing substantial to deliver.
WhatsApp does not have in-app encryption
WhatsApp enabled end-to-end encryption for messages sent over the internet, but lost a basic functionality – no encryption for messages stored on your WhatsApp. phone. So what’s the use of encrypting messages over the network if someone steals your device without a password? Of course, you can go through all your messages. To combat this, Signal encourages you to define up your own password. Then all text messages on Signal are encrypted with your password before being stored locally. You can also choose to automatically block Signal after a certain period of time.
WhatsApp online backups are not encrypted
Support up your WhatsApp messages to your Google Drive can be very convenient. After all, there’s no telling when your phone it may disappoint you or, worse, be robbed. Google Drive message recovery can be a lifesaver in these situations. Unfortunately, storing your data in the cloud poses an even greater security risk. Since the backup data is stored on Google Drive, your Google credentials are the only layer of security here. don’t trust me Check out this screenshot of WhatsApp settings which clearly states that messages you supported up on Google Drive are not protected by end-to-end encryption:
If God forbid, your Gmail account gets hacked, or Google has to serve a warrant, remember that all your conversations will be exposed. But that is not all. Even if you turned off online backups, but the other person you’re talking to turned them on, you’ll also log out. You know that moment when you have to suffer for the mistakes of others? Yes, this is a moment. Signal handles this problem well and doesn’t offer a feature backup option. It only includes a plain text manual backup/restore option if you need it. This may not be the most convenient option, but in final It all boils down to one thing: features vs. safety. And Signal is doing what it does best – focusing on security.
WhatsApp is proprietary (and owned by Facebook!)
End-to-end encryption is only one side of the story. For a complete picture, it is necessary to understand how encryption has been integrated. With closed-source apps like WhatsApp, it’s nearly impossible to inspect the code and see how the encryption has been integrated. On the other hand, Signal’s codebase is open source and can be analyzed by researchers to determine if security measures are properly applied.
Furthermore, Facebook owns WhatsApp and Facebook’s business model is based on advertising. Remember how WhatsApp announced in August that it will share some of its data with parent company Facebook? First, share your phone number to offer best friend suggestions and of course more relevant ads! Even if you opted out during the 30-day period, some data was still shared with Facebook.
Signal has better security-focused settings
I would also like to highlight two small security-focused settings that Signal has. The first is Disappearing Messages, which stays true to its name and lets you send self-destructive messages. You have the ability to send messages that will self-destruct after 5 seconds to up one week ago. The second is “Screen Security”, which prevents anyone from taking a screenshot of your conversation. Obviously not foolproof as someone can always take a picture of another phone. Also, when you click the Recent/Multitasking button button on Android, your conversation doesn’t show a preview in the signal window. See the image below for better understanding.
Final note
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