Pavel Durov, the founder of the instant messaging platform Telegram, made a call to people yesterday. The founder said in his call that people should stay away from WhatsApp and use another app to prevent their phone from being hacked.
Founder claims WhatsApp has been spying on users for 13 years
Telegram founder Pave Durov made a statement on his Telegram channel yesterday. In his statement, he referred to the vulnerability WhatsApp disclosed last week, which allowed a hacker to hijack a person’s phone and send malicious videos to numbers.
In addition, he stated in his statement that WhatsApp has been a surveillance tool for 13 years. Additionally, he said there is an issue in WhatsApp every year that puts users’ data at risk. He emphasized that users should use a different application for this.
“I’m not forcing people to switch to Telegram here. With over 700 million active users and over 2 million daily signups, Telegram doesn’t need any additional promotions. You can use any messaging app you want. But stay away from WhatsApp; it has been a surveillance tool for 13 years.”
The founder said that due to the security issue that WhatsApp announced last week, hackers could gain full access to everything on users’ phones. He also stated that the latest version will not secure data either. He added that the same situation repeated in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Durov also pointed out that there was no end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp before 2016.
In addition to the recurring vulnerabilities, Durov mentioned the feature that encourages users to store their conversations in the cloud. He also warned that even wealthy people like Jeff Bezos are not safe.
“Every year we hear about an issue on WhatsApp that puts everything on users’ devices at risk. This means that it is almost certain that a new vulnerability is already out there.”
So, what do you think of Pavel Durov’s comments on WhatsApp? Do not forget to share your views with us in the comments section!