Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook – Which app collects the most data from users

After the controversy generated by the changes in WhatsApp terms and conditions, people have been looking for other alternatives that take better care of their privacy.

After the controversy caused by WhatsApp when it announced changes to its terms and conditions that warned about the collection of information, thousands of people have decided to change their instant messaging application and even this situation generated a premature increase in downloads from other networks social networks, such as Telegram and Signal, Telegrafi reports.

These two applications received considerable interest from users, due to the little or no amount of information they hold, which represents an exchange value for people who have become increasingly concerned about the information that technology has access to.

According to Sensor Tower data, during the first week of 2021, WhatsApp had an 11% decrease in the number of downloads, while Signal had 7.5 million downloads, which represented an increase of 43 times compared to the previous week.

The most important case in terms of privacy terms is Signal, an app that only the personal information it stores is the phone number, but does not make any effort to obtain more user data. In addition, the messages are encrypted, that is, they are "protected" while being directed to the recipient, so there is no risk of interceptions.

Another outstanding element is that it has an open source system, so that anyone can access the application code and thus confirm that it is a secure platform. This aspect is so important that even personalities like Elon Musk or Edward Snowden have recommended it.

Telegram, for its part, is another alternative, although it should be mentioned that in this case, the amount of data that is linked to the user's account is slightly more than Signal, because in addition to the phone number, it also collects information such as .sh. e Member ID, his contacts and his account name.

Cybersecurity specialists have mentioned that in secret chats, this app may have a higher degree of security, but when it comes to regular chats, it uses its own encryption, which does not surpass that of WhatsApp. Therefore, it would not be a completely reliable alternative in case of sharing sensitive information.

WhatsApp is the application that would occupy the next position in the cyber security scale, except that it makes a significant difference in the data collected from the user, which is not small and can represent a risk for those who are concerned about their environment digital.

However, the most important application in terms of data intrusion is Facebook, because in addition to the information mentioned in the previous applications, you can also access issues such as photos, videos, search history, browsing history, and issues others.

It is worth noting that experts on the subject have warned that if a user stops using WhatsApp due to the new conditions, but keeps Facebook or Instagram, the first action would not have represented an advance in terms of the security of their computer, since the three applications are part of the same company and this would still have a record of the person. /Telegraph/