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The last decade has seen a massive rise in supposedly secure or anonymous messaging services like Telegram and Signal. However, anyone who believes these are truly anonymous messaging apps is likely mistaken.

In the case of WhatsApp, while messages are end-to-end encrypted, many have recently suggested that parent company Meta exports user data each night to use in advertising and marketing, or for other undisclosed purposes.

And in the case of privacy-focused messaging apps like Telegram and Signal, it’s very possible that they’re not as private as we may think. As described by Tucker Carlson (and mentioned in the previous lesson), the NSA may have had free and open access to his Signal messages around the time he was organising an interview with Vladimir Putin. It’s also been reported by the media that the FBI may have ways to access or harvest messages from Signal and other apps, even from a locked device.

All this aside, it’s important to remember that if you’re not paying for a product like a free messaging app, it’s almost certain that you are the product: meaning your data is the valuable commodity that’s being collected, categorised, and possibly sold.

In other words, it’s best to assume that even though you are using private messaging apps, that someone—whether a tech company or a government—may be listening or watching.

The simple (and frightening) truth is likely this: there really is no such thing as truly anonymous messaging in today’s world, regardless of how encrypted your messages might be. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t be more anonymous than most.

Despite their problems, there are messaging apps we think may be better than others. These are:

• Signal: if you want the app that many consider to has the most secure encryption and default privacy.
• Telegram: if you want a secure messaging app with the most in-built functionality, like being able to send money/crypto quickly and easily to other users.
• Confide: if you want an app where your messages to another user can be automatically destroyed after being read, and where screenshots of the messages themselves cannot be taken.

For many though, the problem with any secure messaging app is usually this: you need a phone number to sign up for an account. A phone number that is most likely linked to your name, and can be traced back to you. And if you want to remain as private as possible, this is likely not ideal.

Be aware though, this will come at a reasonable financial cost.

1. STEP 1: Own (or create) an account on Telegram.
2. STEP 2: Message @wallet on Telegram, which will activate your own built-in crypto wallet on the messaging app.
3. STEP 3: In the Telegram wallet, buy USDT crypto P2P (P2P = peer-to-peer, ie; from other users) negating the need for any KYC or background checks linking your purchase of crypto to your identification.
4. STEP 4: Exchange USDT for TON. TON stands for “The Open Network” and is Telegram’s own cryptocurrency.
5. STEP 5: Head to Fragment.com, which is a marketplace where you can use TON to purchase Telelgram assets like handles and phone numbers. The key here is that you can buy +888 phone numbers: +888 is effectively a new international-dial country code phone number that is exclusive to Telegram, and can be bought anonymously. Be aware however that at the time of this writing, the cheapest +888 numbers for sale are being sold for 129 TON, which is approximately $840 USD.