Messengers are one of the main tools for modern business management. However, using such public services, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, or Teams, may lead to higher privacy risks. Are you really sure your messenger does not leak your messages, photos, or other data without you knowing? Are you really in control of the information shared online?
Public messengers are not safe for business
- Message history is stored in the cloud provider. One leak or hack, and all confidential information ends up in the wrong hands. This happened with Discord, Signal, and other similar public messengers.
- Metadata is available for a messenger’s owner. Even if messages are encrypted and unavailable for a server’s owner, there is still information about conversation details: who, where, when, and with whom. This data is used for analysis and ad personalization. There is a reason why Meta purchased WhatsApp — the main value was primarily in the big user database.
- Account block can cancel your access to history and contacts. Even if the block was a mistake, it is almost impossible to get your access back. My personal experience with Skype proves it: the account was blocked because of “rule violation,” which left me with no access to and message history. And in Teams, I can’t use my account, and my requests about unblocking do not do anything.
- Blocking a messenger on the governmental level. You will lose all data and contacts in one moment.
As a result, businesses lose data and contacts with their customers, and they can’t control it.
MyChat: business messenger that works for you only
MyChat is a corporate messenger that is installed on your server (self-hosted), and it cannot physically leak information outside your network. All messages, files, and accounts are stored within your infrastructure.
Important notice: you do not have to believe everything developers say. In the case of MyChat, you can check everything on your own:
- Deploy MyChat in a closed network (LAN) or in a corporate VPN network.
- Use any network analyzer, for example, Wireshark, and make sure that MyChat does not “give away” data.
- Check if the data is really encrypted and how exactly.
- You can do the same with other messengers. The main difference is that you would always see a constant connection between public services and the provider’s servers.
For comparison: Telegram considered itself an app with reliable encryption, but by default, its chats are not encrypted (end-to-end). Otherwise, you could not restore message history when installing Telegram on a new device. To enable real end-to-end, you need to create special “secret chats”. Only a small part of users do that.
The company has full control over data
Self-hosted business software provides advanced and reliable information security.
- Only employees have access to the system. No external accounts that can be used in the wrong way.
- No information leak. All traffic is inside your work network.
- Only work-related communication. Internal business messenger is not for regular chitchat.
- Message history under the control of the security service. The company can analyze or delete it if needed.
MyChat provides premises with reliable control tools that you can’t get when using public services. Remember, if you share some sensitive information over Telegram or WhatsApp and then press “Delete” or “Delete for everyone”, that does NOT mean that this information will be physically deleted on all devices and server databases.
MyChat advantages
- Transparency: you can check network traffic on your own and make sure that the system work for your company only.
- Security: encryption, user rights sytem, integration with Active Directory.
- Autonomy: MyChat works without Internet connection too.
- Reliability: nobody can disconnect you from the service or block accidentally.
Free version for start
MyChat is available ina free version for 20 users. No limination for time, features, or connected physical devices. In MyChat freee version, you can:
- install the server on your computer or corporate network (no Windows Server needed);
- connect your team;
- install the messenger on computers and mobile phones;
- make sure everything is reliable and convenient.
You can always switch to commercial version when ready.