Jeff Bezos Should Use My App & Ditch WhatsApp: Telegram Founder
The messaging app’s founder spoke after Amazon CEO Bezos phone was reportedly hacked to spy on his chats.
Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos' data may not have been hacked if he had relied on Telegram instead of Facebook-owned WhatsApp, this is what Telegram founder Pavel Durov advised in his detailed blog post titled ‘Why Using WhatsApp is Dangerous’ this week.
He emphasised that WhatsApp had a backdoor which allowed hackers to access all the data on a user’s phone which had the popular messaging app installed. “It became clear that this backdoor had been exploited to extract private communications and photos of Jeff Bezos – the richest person on the planet – who unfortunately relied on WhatsApp,” Durov mentioned.
He feels that WhatsApp has proudly marketed its use of encryption but never looked at its possible shortcomings. “The encryption technology is not a silver bullet that can guarantee you absolute privacy by itself.”
Durov also stated that once the reports of backdoor in WhatsApp were published, Facebook should have openly come out, apologised and pledged not to plant any more backdoors in the platform.
Instead, Facebook is claimed to have put the blame on Apple for the issue, trying to prove itself innocent. “Facebook’s vice president claimed that iOS, rather than WhatsApp, had been hacked.”
However, multiple reports post this revelation have mentioned the ‘vulnerability’ was not merely confined to iOS, and even Android as well as Windows Phone devices with WhatsApp installed were affected. “This security fault was not present in other messaging apps on iOS.”
Quoting another media report, Durov said in the last year alone, over 12 flaws have been found in WhatsApp, out of which, seven of them were said to be critical.
Telegram, according to Durov, works on a different parameter to WhatsApp, as it looks to thwart the compulsion being put by enforcement agencies, who’re seeking these platforms to remove encryption.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)