For businesses, communication is the key to success. A CEO or a budding entrepreneur must understand how crucial it is to connect with people. Nowadays, companies can communicate with their respective employees and customers through mobile instant messaging (IM) applications.
WhatsApp and Telegram, to name a few IM apps examples, had features like chats, voice calls, and video calls to provide hassle-free and wide-reach communication. At present, IM apps are trendsetters in the business industry as they cost less and save time.
However, honing the prowess of IM apps to earn corporate success requires an emphasis on user data privacy. Ever heard WhatsApp call monitoring and WhatsApp recording? Don’t be worried. It is natural for WhatsApp and other IM apps to archive your messages and calls in compliance with established laws and regulations such as the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).
In this blog, we share with you how IM apps offer transparency and secure privacy at the same time for their consumers.
Aside from sharing similar roots as Facebook owns them, WhatsApp and Messenger adopt end-to-end encryption to protect user data from foreign interference and monitoring. End-to-end encryption is the said-to-be golden standard in assuring privacy. Yet, Messenger users should first switch on the Secret Conversations setting to transmit end-to-end encrypted messages.
Moreover, WhatsApp and Messenger didn’t encrypt metadata so Facebook can see your conversations, and they didn’t only collect user information but also make their application codes private. On the contrary, both apps outline and show transparency reports of the data they get from you.
If Telegram subscribers wish to send end-to-end encrypted messages, they should turn the Start Secret Button on. The Russian-made IM app doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption of messages by default, and the same goes for the user’s conversation metadata. Like WhatsApp and Messenger, Telegram gathers user data but didn’t provide transparency reports, and the application code isn’t open to the public.
With strict regulations ordered by the Chinese government, the China-based WeChat can monitor your messages as it has no end-to-end encryption for both conversation and metadata. It also collects user data on top of not providing transparency reports and making its application code unavailable.
On the other hand, Signal may be the youngest among its IM apps peers yet tops the competition as it secures both the user’s conversations and metadata through end-to-end encryption. Managed by the Signal Technology Foundation, it doesn’t ask for your user info and makes its application code open for public scrutiny.
On the whole, Signal has unmatched transparency and privacy measures without a doubt. But, other IM apps have their way to secure the user’s personal information and prevent data leaks from happening. Therefore, users should know how these apps work, protect their identity, and apply proper etiquette while using them.
For more information, refer to this infographic by TeleMessage.
