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Messaging apps keep us connected to friends, family, and colleagues — and they help free up our iPhones or Androids and avoid paying additional fees for services like overseas calls.
There are so many amazing messaging apps like Signal and Wickr that are encrypted and secure — which means anything you send to a friend or partner stays between the two of you.
Unfortunately, there are apps that aren’t as trustworthy. Here are four messaging apps every Apple employee warns against downloading.
Telegram
The biggest problem with the Telegram app is that you can’t be sure your conversations are going to remain private. According to Gizmodo: “ The app allows you to switch into a ‘secret’ mode, but even then, the encryption used by Telegram is weak and faulty. Seriously, avoid this app at all costs if you’re looking to communicate securely.”
It’s not that WhatsApp is a bad app — and it’s certainly so darn popular that you probably know tons of people on it in every country where you have friends. But if you are deciding on just one or two messaging apps, WhatsApp isn’t typically at the top of tech experts’ lists — and that has everything to do with the fact that it’s owned by Facebook.
According to Nord VPN: “Collecting users’ data is at the center of this social media giant’s business model and it failed to keep user data safe multiple times. Can we really trust Facebook, secure encryption notwithstanding?”
Facebook Messenger
Yet again, any connection to Facebook creates doubts in the minds of many experts when they are deciding which messenger apps to use — Facebook Messengers, aside from being a big battery drain, also has potential security flaws. According to Nord VPN: “The social media giant still gathers data like who you text or how often you use the app. And let’s not forget that, in 2018, Facebook became infamous for its multiple data breaches. They’ve become hard to trust with your privacy!”
iMessage
There are two major red flags when it comes to using iMessage, according to Nord VPN: the app collects user info based on their behavior and it doesn’t encrypt certain data like phone numbers, metadata, and data stored on cloud. “iPhone owners’ alternative to text messages – iMessage – has default end-to-end encryption,” reports Nord VPN “However, it still has a bunch of vulnerabilities and is far from the most secure messaging platform.”
