Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
#2I suppose he may be correct but he also has a stake in the game since he made telegram. Or maybe his brother made it and he’s the face of it. I dunno. There’s always drama about something on the Russian Internet.
Re: Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
#3WhatsApp by default exports your private key to Google Drive. If you have not done this, probably your conversation partner did.
If neither of you have done this, don't worry the client side code is so sloppy there will be a zero click RCE that can steal all your chats anyway.
Re: Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
#4I would be highly skeptical about Telegram as well. If I would need to select either Whatsapp or Telegram, Whatsapp would be really easy choice for me, considering the background of Durov. For some reason, Telegram is extremely popular in Russia and still has managed to avoid goverment bans.
Re: Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
#5WhatsApp by default exports your private key to Google Drive. If you have not done this, probably your conversation partner did. If neither of you have done this, don't worry the client side code is so sloppy there will be a zero click RCE that can steal all your chats anyway.
Wow, good for you, you can make A LOT of money!!
https://bugbounty.meta.com/
Re: Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
#6I would be highly skeptical about Telegram as well. If I would need to select either Whatsapp or Telegram, Whatsapp would be really easy choice for me, considering the background of Durov. For some reason, Telegram is extremely popular in Russia and still has managed to avoid goverment bans.
what is wrong with durov?
Re: Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
#7I would be highly skeptical about Telegram as well. If I would need to select either Whatsapp or Telegram, Whatsapp would be really easy choice for me, considering the background of Durov. For some reason, Telegram is extremely popular in Russia and still has managed to avoid goverment bans.
What's worse: Telegram's alleged accessibility to Moscow/FSB, or WhatsApp's proven spying and data selling to anyone?
Re: Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
#8This is really funny coming from Durov, CEO of an IM app that doesn't even have E2EE on by default (or even available for group chats). Both WhatsApp and Telegram are terrible choices.
Re: Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
#9I would be highly skeptical about Telegram as well. If I would need to select either Whatsapp or Telegram, Whatsapp would be really easy choice for me, considering the background of Durov. For some reason, Telegram is extremely popular in Russia and still has managed to avoid goverment bans.
Telegram isn't even encrypted, at least not in the sense of the on-by-default end-to-end encryption used by WhatsApp, iMessage and Signal. In reality its selling point is that your chat records are placed in foreign jurisdictions so your local police can't easily access them.
https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2024/08/25/telegram...
Ultimately the only way to be completely sure is to use an open-source app like Signal that you've either built yourself from source you've inspected; or sourced pre-built from someone you trust.
Re: Pavel Durov: "You'd have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026"
#10I would be highly skeptical about Telegram as well. If I would need to select either Whatsapp or Telegram, Whatsapp would be really easy choice for me, considering the background of Durov. For some reason, Telegram is extremely popular in Russia and still has managed to avoid goverment bans.
What's worse: Telegram's alleged accessibility to Moscow/FSB, or WhatsApp's proven spying and data selling to anyone?
Tough choice, but I would choose Whatsapp over FSB.