Three secure alternatives to Whatsapp
Now that Facebook has got its mitts on Whatsapp, based on the revelations of the PRISM surveillance program last year you may extend your trust issues with the social network giant to the companies they acquire.
Here are three alternative messaging apps that promote their security as a their biggest selling point:
Telegram
A reported 4.5 million new users flocked to Telegram after the recent outage Whatsapp suffered, just hours after its acquisition by Facebook. Telegram has an encrypted service and offers a self destruct feature. In December 2013 Telegram backer, Pavel Durov, offered a reward of $200,000 in Bitcoins for anyone who could hack their platform.
As well as a similar UI to Whatsapp, Telegram claims not to be interesting in ad revenue and possess as open API for developers to build their own apps on top of their technology. They offer an advanced FAQ where this can be explained.
Surespot
Using the same encryption method as Telegram, Surespot is a free messaging program that allows you to delete your messages from a remote device. Surespot does not associate your account with an email address of phone number and neither does it plan to operate based on advertising generated revenue.
The benefit Surespot has over Telegram is a notably different UI. It’s not the most beautiful app, but it’s user-friendly and super safe - explained here.
And one to look out for:
Heml.is
You may have heard of Helm.is back in 2013 as they underwent a Kickstart campaign to raise $100,000. Driven by the news about PRISM, the Swedish team has a hook for their fundraising campain. “Heml”, which is Swedish for “Secret”, was launched by Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde. Peter states, “We're building a message app where no one can listen in, not even us. We would rather close down the service before letting anyone in."
Despite the array of screenshots and FAQ, there’s no launch date as of yet.
Any to secure messaging apps to add? Post a comment below with your recommendation.
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