Parel Durov, the founder of the social media app Telegram, has appealed to everyone to delete WhatsApp in order to avoid surveillance. As per him, only those who are fine with snooping should have WhatsApp installed on their smartphones.

As is known, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. Through WhatsApp, non-WhatsApp content (including images stored on mobile phones) can be snooped by Facebook, he says.

As per the Telegram founder, this makes our messages and pictures vulnerable. They can be made public, he adds.

"Facebook has been carrying out surveillance programs even before it acquired WhatsApp," he further comments.

However, not many will listen to the Telegram founder's message. WhatsApp has become more important than Facebook and, globally, it has got 1.6 billion users.