The Electronic Frontier Foundation has dug into the detail of WhatsApp and it’s move to better encryption. Office Watch has already noted the limitations of WhatsApp and their much publicized change.
If you’re interested in the detail of WhatsApp security and how it works, check out the EFF study. The article doesn’t address the issue of data collection by WhatsApp. It notes that WhatsApp code isn’t available for external auditing.
The EFF has also updated their ‘Secure Messaging Scorecard‘, a comparison of the security in various Instant Messaging apps. It’s worth noting the really bad ‘score’ for Microsoft Skype.
We’re interested in secure messaging because it’s important for anyone moving private Office documents, worksheets, presentations or databases. The methods offered by Microsoft are usually unsafe with the more secure options (like email encryption) are difficult to use.
The EFF suggests Signal which certainly looks good but it doesn’t have a file transfer option (messaging and voice calls only). WhatsApp only allows file transfer of some file types but not documents.
We continue to use and suggest Telegram. It allows file transfers as well as messaging (alas no voice). Telegram’s standard mode is flexible while the Secret mode is available when you need it. Telegram also lets you login from multiple devices while WhatsApp is locked to a single device.
All that said, the reality is that WhatsApp is incredibly popular (claims of a billion users). So you may have to use WhatsApp because many of your contacts do.
