If you want your data to end up managed by the US you can use WhatsApp, if you want it to end up in Russia you can use Telegram. They are very similar in features, but I'm not a fan of Telegram storing all the conversation in their server.
They are ignorant to the point that I simply can't understand. Durov is in 'fuck you and die sooner' relation with russian goverment, but people still claim that Telegram is under their control. Right now we are at risk of losing Telegram if he will not provide server location info to FSB in few weeks, and it seems Durov is ready to lose russian market completely to protect it from these guys.
I actually trust whatsapp way less, simply because it has NO problems with russian special forces, which became very high-tech last years. This alone is a big red flag today.
>Right now we are at risk of losing Telegram if he will not provide server location info to FSB in few weeks, and it seems Durov is ready to lose russian market completely to protect it from these guys
Do you believe that whatsapp is not storing your messages now ? They said they are not doing it to begin with but there are good reasons that they might be doing this. Fb and whatsapp have shared enough information to be fined by an EU court this week for 100 million euros. Although 've to agree that data with US is better than Russia.
Regarding "fined by the EU". They obviously transferred WhatsApp data to Facebook and vice versa.
But I don't think that they necessarily store all of your WhatsApp messages somewhere in the cloud. Otherwise they could provide a similar easy, device independent solution like Telegram - instead of using the smartphone as a general pipe for all of the messages. So yeah...maybe they do and maybe they just don't want to tell us - but for now I am pretty confident that they would provide their user base with some kind of storing back end advantages.
Telegram and Russia are not connected. Any quick look at the history of the app and Durov the founder will tell you that vs whatever bias you most likely hold.
That was more of a theoretical issue. And while some have named it a backdoor, the consensus among infosec experts (which I'm not) seems to be that it was a defensible and even sensible tradeoff of usability vs privacy (for the intended audience). If you want more privacy and less usability, use Signal.
Honest comment. As a neutral (UK), it's a tough call as to which country I'd prefer in this scenario.
In terms of data, I imagine the US to be just as bad if not much worse (my prejudice) than Russia.
Someone can school me on this if I'm wrong but I prefer Telegram as a platform and I'm ambivalent as to which country my data ends up in (given this choice).
(Editing this comment based on above: "Small correction.
With Telegram your data ends up in Germany.
They are Berlin based and against the current Russian government")
Thanks for the link, I don't doubt that. But I meant specifically on the point of data-handling. Some Russian hackers or spooks vs American hackers and the NSA, etc
The UK sucks just as bad. The current PM has just announced plans to regulate the web if they win the next election.
