The Swiss Army has decided to ban the use of the world’s most famous messaging app over data protection concerns, telling staff instead to use locally developed alternatives. More specifically, the new rules went into effect in December, and a report from RT suggested that everyone in the military must stop using WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram.
The reason is simple: State officials are concerned that some conversations could be accessed without authorization by others. According to the aforementioned sources, the soldiers are now being told to install Threema, a mobile messaging software developed by the Swiss company.
The Swiss Army explained that, unlike foreign applications, Threema is subject to Swiss regulations, so no other agency can request access to the conversation. In the case of WhatsApp and Signal, both apps are compliant with the US CLOUD Act, which means that the US government has access to certain data even if it is not stored on servers within the US.
So the Swiss government tries to make sure that no one reads the military’s conversations on the information platform. It now keeps any potential data sharing tightly controlled by forcing the use of domestic solutions.
WhatsApp is the world’s No. 1 mobile messaging app, yet the Facebook-owned platform has been embroiled in some contentious disputes. Last year, a privacy policy update pushed millions of users to alternative solutions, including Signal and Telegram.
Telegram, on the other hand, is trying to lure users by tightening privacy controls. Features such as secret chats allow users to automatically delete messages they send in conversations after a certain amount of time, and Telegram guarantees that these chats will not be stored anyway.