Signal > Threema > iMessage > WhatsApp > Telegram > FB Messenger

can telegram be considered FOSS with their servers being proprietary?

As opposed to faceberg and their "i can't believe it's not Signal" encryption?

Eh what servers?
Maybe I will uninstall. Did I get memed into installing botnet?

test

:(

Telegram isn't E2E Encrypted by default. It should be in the trash, where it belongs, as it is immediately on par with Facebook Messenger for that reason alone. It's WORSE than Facebook messenger because Telegram rolls their own shitty crypto for their E2EE, whereas Facebook uses the Signal Protocol for their E2EE messages.

I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to this, is Whatsapp safe to use then? I know it still goes through facebook's servers, but if you don't have whatsapp in my country it's as if you didn't exist.

Whatsapp is E2E Encrypted using the Signal Protocol by default. Now, E2E Encryption means they can't read your messages. But there can sometimes be metadata that people can infer information from. In a court case where the FBI demanded:
>Subscriber name
>Payment information
>Associated IP addresses
>Email addresses
>History logs
>Browser cookie data
>Other information associated with two phone numbers
Signal fully complied, and turned over all it had. They turned over:
>The account creation date
>The date the account was last used.
That's all they had.

It's reasonably safe to assume that Signal, being fully open source, is the most secure messenger today. WhatsApp is not open source, but they use the exact same encryption protocol. Could they gather more metadata? Possibly. However, given the security of the encryption due to the protocol used, it's reasonably safe to assume that your messages are secure. Ditto for Facebooks "Secret" messages, although, since messages aren't E2E Encrypted by default, you couldn't pay me to use it, because even if you are devout about keeping your shit E2E Encrypted, the person you are messaging may not.

Forgot my source: securityaffairs.co/wordpress/51915/digital-id/signal-metadata.html

Thanks for tge detailed explanation. I don't feel as bad for using whatsapp now.

Messenger works on PCs without having to sync up a phone, but also supports continuous conversations across devices, and I can look people up by name instead of numbers or user names. It's by far the most convenient.

It's certainly better than most. Personally, I see no reason not to make Signal your default text messenger (it's pretty much a more secure iMessage for android, where it will send texts to all non-signal users,but send E2E Encrypted messages to all Signal users. But no, I would rate Signal as "above average."

That said, as one of Trump's stooges found out, the most secure messenger in the world doesn't mean shit if the people receiving the messages just show them to the cops when asked. I know Signal can do this, so I assume WhatsApp can, too: Set a self-destructing timer on your messages. All my messages expire after 12 hours, more than enough time for someone to read even if they have just fallen asleep when I message them.