Don't use whatsapp? Founder of the Telegram App, Pavel Durov has asked people to abstain from using WhatsApp as it has been a surveillance tool for 13 years.

“I'm not pushing people to switch to Telegram here. With 700M+ active users and 2M+ daily signups, Telegram doesn't need additional promotion. You can use any messaging app you like, but do stay away from WhatsApp – it has now been a surveillance tool for 13 years,” said Durov.

He said that hackers can hack WhatsApp easily and they have access to the app. All the data can be easily stolen by hackers through WhatsApp. And every year, there has been an issue with WhatsApp and its updates.

“Every year, we learn about some issue in WhatsApp that puts everything on their users' devices at risk. This means it's almost certain that a new security flaw already exists there. Such issues are hardly incidental – they are planted backdoors. If one backdoor is discovered and has to be removed, another one is added,” he said.

The Telegram founder said that it does not matter if one is the richest person on Earth; if they have WhatsApp on their phone, all their data on the device will be hacked.

“That's why I deleted WhatsApp from my devices years ago. Having it installed creates a door to get into your phone,” said Durov.