A little while ago WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption for messaging, which was very welcome to people like me who are concerned about their privacy. A few days ago, though, they changed their terms of service and are now going to use data for ad targeting on Facebook. Ugh. Read more about it on

TechCrunch: WhatsApp to share user data with Facebook for ad targeting — here’s how to opt out.

However, you cannot opt out of all data sharing, just some. Time to look for an alternative!

I’ve already been using Threema (which costs 2,99€ for iPhone), but now a friend pointed me to Telegram, which is not only free and available for virtually all platforms (including desktop computers), it also is open source, uses encryption and is cloud-based, so you can access your messages from multiple devices.

I installed it immediately and plan to delete WhatsApp before having to agree to their new terms of service after telling as many as my contacts as possible about Telegram.