For data protection reasons, the Swiss Army has decided to ban the use of the world's most famous messaging app, instead telling staff to use locally developed alternatives. More specifically, the new rules went into effect in December, and a report by the RT shows that everyone in the military must stop using WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram.
The reason is simple: State officials fear that some of the conversations may be gained without authorization by others.
According to the sources mentioned above, the soldiers are now told to install Threeema, a mobile messaging software developed by a Swiss company.
The Swiss Army explained that unlike foreign applications, Threema is governed by Swiss regulations, so no other agency can request access to the conversation.
Take WhatsApp and Signal, for example, both of which comply with the U.S. CLOUD Act, which means that the U.S. government has access to certain data, even if it's not stored on servers within the U.S.
So the Swiss government is trying to make sure no one reads the army's conversations on information platforms. Now, it makes any potential data sharing tightly controlled by enforcing the use of domestic solutions.
WhatsApp is the world's largest mobile messaging app, yet the Facebook-owned platform has been embroiled in some controversial disputes. Last year, an update to a privacy policy pushed millions of users toward alternative solutions, including Signal and Telegram.
Telegram, on the other hand, tries to attract users by tightening privacy controls. Features such as secret chats allow users to automatically delete the messages they send in conversations after a specific time, and Telegram guarantees that these chats will not be stored anyway.
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