Representatives of the government, using WhatsApp and Telegram messengers for communication, are at great risk. This was in an interview with France Inter said a former employee of the US National Security Agency (NSA) Edward Snowden.

He said that French President Emmanuel Macron communicates with subordinates through Telegram, and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe through WhatsApp. According to him, public safety has never been the goal of the creators of these programs.

“Any of these programs is better than SMS or a phone without an encoding system, but if you are the prime minister, their use is very risky. The widespread use of WhatsApp in government is a mistake, ”said Edward Snowden.

He added that the WhatsApp-owned Facebook company is gradually removing the protection from the messenger.

“Facebook promises that it will not listen to conversations because they are encrypted, but it is still trying to do this for reasons of national security. Although in reality we are talking about the impact on events and their change in the mainstream beneficial for the authorities, ”Snowden said.

As an alternative, he advised officials to switch to the free Signal or Wire instant messengers.

Edward Snowden became famous in 2013 after he disclosed top-secret information about the surveillance of American intelligence services for communications of citizens around the world using existing communication networks. He was granted political asylum in the Russian Federation.

Snowden is now president of the non-profit Freedom of the Press Foundation, a community-based journalism advocacy organization that protects arrested journalists and informants. The organization accepts donations in cryptocurrency .

Recall that in August, Facebook admitted that it hired third-party contractors to listen to the voice messages of users sent by them in the Messenger application.

Read more about personal data leaks via Facebook here .

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