Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, has been using the Telegram messenger app to communicate with his team, this is according to unnamed officials who were interviewed by Bloomberg. The group also uses WhatsApp too in some cases. Luckily, the team is not using the apps to transmit information that is sensitive, classified, or could be used to harm national security.
For all high-security comms, the French President uses high-security hardware such as cryptophones specifically built for the Government, according to an official. The news that Macron uses Telegram will no doubt come as a boon to the company which, in recent years, has been known in the media as Islamic State’s go-to messenger.
Earlier this month, Macron’s wife visited a baby panda at a zoo in Loire Valley; according to the official who claimed Telegram is used by the President, the trip to the zoo was organised using the popular messenger app.
While Telegram claims that it doesn’t advertise - and solely relies on donations from its creator, Facebook’s WhatsApp does collect data which is transmitted to the social networking giant. Several experts have voiced their concern that the president is opting to use free services in any capacity citing the risk of sensitive data accidentally going through Telegram instead of through a cryptophone and inadvertently being exposed.
Ever since we found out Barack Obama was a fan of BlackBerry it has been quite interesting to learn what tech world leaders are using.