Why does Elon Musk want you to use Signal and not Facebook – and how does it work?

What is the Signal app, and how does it keep messages private?

Tycoon Elon Musk took to Twitter last week to criticize Facebook for its latest privacy policy updates for its secretive encrypted messaging app WhatsApp.

Instead, Musk recommended that users opt for the encrypted messaging app Signal.

Use Signals

- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021

His tweet was then shared by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Shortly after, Signal tweeted that it was working to handle the increase in new users.

Musk's tweet also coincidentally caused the shares of a biotech company, Signal Advance, to rise, the Telegraph reports.

This isn't the first time Musk has publicly clashed with Facebook over privacy concerns. In 2018, he not only removed his personal Facebook page, but also those of his companies such as Tesla and SpaceX.

Both the encrypted messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook have been found to have security flaws over the years that have been resolved. For years, WhatsApp has openly collected certain user data to share with parent company Facebook. Its latest policy change merely extends it. On the other hand, Signal has a history of fighting any entity that asks for your data.

What is Signal and how the encrypted message works

Signal is a typical one-tap install app that can be found on the Play Store and App Store and works just like a regular text messaging app. It's an open-source development provided for free by the non-profit Signal Foundation, and has been used for years by high-profile privacy icons like Edward Snowden.

The main function of Signal is that it can send secure text, video, audio and photo messages to anyone after you have verified your phone number and allow you to independently verify the identity of other users of Signal.

You can also use it to make voice and video calls, either one-to-one or to a group.

When it comes to privacy it's hard to beat Signal's offering. It does not store your user data.

Occasional missteps have proven that the technology isn't bulletproof, of course, but the overall arc of Signal's reputation and track record has kept it at the top of everyone's list of identity protection tools.

For years, the core privacy challenge for Signal lay not in its technology, but in its wider adoption. /Telegraph/