Best Messaging Apps to Keep Your Data Private and Secure

Following our article on collaboration tools, we decided to run another piece about how to keep your messages secure – and private. After all, WhatsApp recently updated its privacy policy, which aims to share more user data with Facebook. According to the company, they designed this update to make WhatsApp better by providing more relevant experiences. They also said that the policy only applies to businesses using their platform and not individuals.

What does this mean for you? The most important thing is that Facebook will see and access information shared over WhatsApp. This data will include your phone number, profile pictures, status updates, and even location. WhatsApp’s refusal to re-evaluate the policy has caused many people to look elsewhere resulting in a surge of interest in privacy-first social messaging apps.

Other Messaging Apps That Respect Your Privacy

1. Viber

Viber was founded in 2010 and is among the best privacy-focused messaging apps available. It has a simple interface and is highly functional even if you don’t know how to use it properly. It also allows you to set an unlimited number of contacts.

Viber promotes and respects your privacy by ensuring that 3rd parties have no access to any of your information. It also encrypts all your data with AES-256, and you can set a password to keep your accounts safe.

• Telegram

This free app with over 200 million active users is simple to use. The service also offers a desktop version, which means that you can sync your messages across multiple devices. Programmers built Telegram on a custom protocol that combines speed and security.

The app allows for different kinds of content, such as text, photos, and video. It also keeps your message safe from 3rd parties by using AES-256 encryption, which experts consider hard to crack.

• Signal

The Signal is a messaging app built to enable you to transfer information with the utmost privacy. It is simple, easy to use, and highly secure. It provides a feature called Invisibles that allows you to make messages disappear after some time.

This feature lets you delete any message that you send mistakenly or to the wrong recipient. The app also allows you to set a timer for how long users can view your messages before they disappear.

Other Ways to Maintain Your Online Privacy

Apart from using platforms and apps that enforce privacy, there are other means you can maintain your online privacy. Here are some of the main ways.

• Use a VPN

VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a service that allows you to encrypt your internet traffic and hide it from prying eyes. It creates an encrypted channel between your computer and the internet, which helps you browse freely, share data securely and access restricted content in your area. Most consider VPNs as the best method of ensuring online privacy.

• Privacy Focused Browsers

Another acclaimed way of ensuring online privacy is by using a privacy-focused browser. These browsers offer users with options to encrypt all the data collected or sent from your computer. For instance, when you use the Tor browser to view a website, it encrypts your data and routes it through several countries before finally reaching its destination. This makes it almost impossible for the website to figure out your exact location.

• Encrypt Your Email Service

The best way to keep your emails safe from prying eyes is by encrypting them. There are two ways you can do this, ranging from adding an encrypted email extension in your email account to installing a dedicated email provider that supports encryption. The former method works well for those who can’t afford the installation of additional software, while the latter is ideal for those who can afford to dedicate a mailbox.

In the technological world of today, online privacy is a serious concern that you must address. With threats like tracking, malware, and identity theft lurking on the internet, you are always at risk. However, by employing the above ways, you can sufficiently secure your online information from any threat.