The Signal protocol that was recently integrated into WhatsApp is a communications protocol, which means that it only encrypts data in transit. As a result, we can verify that our communications are properly encrypted and review the overall security of the app. Signal, on the other hand, is open source.

We trust Open Whisper Systems to have properly integrated the Signal protocol into WhatsApp, but the closed source nature of the app prevents us from identifying other aspects of the app that could impact our security.

While WhatsApp relies on the Signal protocol, which is an open standard, to encrypt its users' communications, the app itself is closed source. Closed source software, on the other hand, requires that we trust the claims of its developers. When software is open source, we are able to review it, see how it has been implemented and verify that it does not contain malicious code. Among other factors, the security of an app also depends on how an encryption protocol is integrated. We would like to start off by congratulating WhatsApp, not only for taking significant measures to protect the privacy of their users, but also for choosing to adopt an open encryption protocol that has been vetted by security experts rather than coming up with yet another proprietary encryption scheme with little or no external review.Ĭrypto is not the only aspect of security, however. In this post, however, we would like to explain why we recommend Signal over WhatsApp, even though they both use the same protocol for end-to-end encryption. Undoubtedly, this is an exciting and important development that will help protect the privacy of users all over the world. (Open Whisper Systems develops Signal, an open source mobile messaging and VoIP app.) When WhatsApp integrated the encryption protocol developed for Signal, many of us began using end-to-end encryption without even realizing it. WhatsApp's collaboration with Open Whisper Systems recently brought end-to-end encryption to the lives of a billion people around the world. Or you might have read about this when it was all over the news. If you're using the latest version of WhatsApp, then you might have noticed the following notification: even though they both use end-to-end encryption Why we still recommend Signal over WhatsApp.

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