Messengers
Viber privacy rating
Messenger owned by Rakuten for chats, groups, voice and video calls, communities and channels, tied to a phone number. Private chats, groups and calls are end-to-end encrypted; the app is funded by ads.
Summary
Viber scores 22 out of 100 (grade F) on the messengers criteria. It meets 1 of 8 criteria: end-to-end encrypted by default. It partly meets no phone number needed. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, metadata protection and decentralized. It is based in Luxembourg: Not in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes; EU member (GDPR).
Score 22 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
- No
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No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
Exodus finds 21 trackers in the Android app, including Google AdMob, Facebook Ads, AppLovin, Adjust and MixPanel.
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No
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
Funded by advertising; the privacy policy describes personalized ads based on Viber activity and data from third parties.
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No
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
No independent audit is published.
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Yes
End-to-end encrypted by default Weight 3 of 3
Are all chats, including groups, end-to-end encrypted by default?
One-on-one chats, group chats, calls and media are end-to-end encrypted by default; public communities and channels are not.
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Partial
No phone number needed Weight 2 of 3
Can an account be created without a phone number?
A phone number is required, but people met in communities or through name search can chat without seeing it.
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No
Metadata protection Weight 2 of 3
Does the service minimize who-talks-to-whom metadata (for example sealed sender or no user identifiers)?
The server sees who talks to whom, and the privacy policy lists activity and device data used for advertising.
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No
Decentralized Weight 1 of 3
Can people run their own server or talk peer to peer?
One central service run by Rakuten Viber.