At the beginning of January 2021, WhatsApp announced that the new terms of service came into effect. The #1 instant messaging app will now share lots of data with its parent company Facebook. WhatsApp wanted to quickly reassure its billions of users by stating that only conversations with companies will be shared with the social network. Similarly, it should be noted that the GDPR is supposed to protect European WhatsApp users against Facebook’s indiscretions.
Regardless, the lawsuit has prompted many Internet users to abandon WhatsApp to switch to competing apps, including Signal or Telegram. As our colleagues at RTL reported, there is a much more secure French app than Signal or Telegram: Olvid. “WhatsApp and Signal don’t have the same commitments to data processing, but they work on the same model. These are mobile apps that identify people by their phone number and connect them in a conversation using a central server”. It highlights Gerome Billois, a Wavestone cybersecurity expert who interviewed RTL. According to the expert, Signal is not that different from WhatsApp.
100% anonymous secure messaging
Developed by French cryptography researchers, Olvid Features similar to WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram. Sending messages, making calls or sharing videos and photos is indeed possible. Olvid uses an encryption protocol that does not rely on the use of a global server to protect data exchanged by its users.
“Olvid is the only communication tool that no longer relies on the security of exchanges on servers” He explains Olvid on his website. Creates application A direct link between Internet users and ignores trusted third parties unlike other solutions on the market. Additionally, Olvid “The only messaging service that also encrypts metadata, thus guaranteeing the anonymity of interlocutors”.
Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to trace the identity of the participants. “No third party, not even the server, can identify the participants” Olvid says on his website. Also, Olvid doesn’t ask no phone number nor access to the users’ contact directory. Just enter a first and last name to start using Olvid. Note that the service does not check the names provided by Internet users. Therefore, you can actually enter a nickname.
For Olvid, the working of WhatsApp makes no sense in terms of security
“At the heart of WhatsApp is a directory that cross-references all phone numbers of 2.5 billion users and acts as a trusted third party to connect their phones’ secure channels. But when it comes to security and data protection, a trusted third party makes no sense to 2.5 billion people. If it has been hacked or malicious, you are no longer secure” Take on Olvid co-founder Thomas Baignères at RTL. Unlike WhatsApp, Olvid does not rely on a directory that centralizes all phone numbers.
users to communicate with other Internet users. Send a 4-digit PIN code. This code is generated directly in the app. For optimum security, Olvid encourages users to complete information in a face-to-face meeting. But the app also lets you add a contact remotely. “With the same level of security as if you were face-to-face”. In this case, the messaging system makes it possible to transmit a link that invites two interlocutors to exchange their respective codes. “The security of exchanges is based on users’ trust in each other” Explains Thomas Baignères. This “key exchange via authentic channel” It replaces trusted third parties used by WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram.
More sophisticated than WhatsApp and others, Olvid is mainly geared towards businesses. However, the courier noted a raid “monumental” New users since the announcement of the new WhatsApp terms of service. The app has passed the 10,000 download limit on the Play Store.
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