Switching to Signal? What actually changes

WhatsApp’s new privacy policy notice this month pushed millions of people to Signal and Telegram. Lots of confusion followed, so here’s the short version.

WhatsApp and Signal both use end-to-end encryption for messages and calls. In fact WhatsApp uses Signal’s protocol. Neither company can read your chats.

The difference is the data around the messages: who you talk to, when, your phone number, your contacts, your device. WhatsApp collects more of that and shares some within Facebook’s companies, mainly around business chats. Signal is built to collect almost nothing.

Telegram is different: normal chats are encrypted between you and Telegram’s servers, not end to end. Only “secret chats” are.

My advice:

• For sensitive conversations, Signal is the stronger choice.
• Whatever you use, turn on the registration PIN or two-step verification, so nobody can take over your number’s account.
• Check where backups go. An unencrypted cloud backup undoes end-to-end encryption.