“WhatsApp is updating its terms and privacy policy. Tap to Agree.” You, I and millions of users around the world received this message in January 2021. Apart from sparking confusion and controversies, it also opened gates of success for other messaging apps like Signal and Telegram. WhatsApp, the number one messaging application in the world, faced public outrage after they updated their terms and privacy policy. The application is end-to-end encrypted, which means the messages can be read only by the sender and receiver. These messages are not stored on the Facebook server. The new privacy policy enabled the app’s parent company to access the messages. The users were asked to accept the change before February 8; however, the deadline was changed to May 15 after facing huge criticism. WhatsApp issued a confirmation stating that the updated privacy policy was intended to alert users that some busi- ness accounts on the app would be using Facebook servers to store messages with consumers, for business purposes only. Facebook added that, these messages wouldn’t be accessed for any type of ad targeting. Furthermore, they mentioned that the private messages between friends and family members will remain end-to-end encrypted. The confusion sparked when the language and the pop-up concerned users that Facebook would now access their private messages. WhatsApp has now erased the deadline. However, users can still accept the update. The users who do not want to accept the update will have fewer features. Amidst all the confusion, two rival messaging compa- nies, Signal and Telegram capitalized on the chaos. They took to Twitter to criticize the new privacy policy and added extra privacy features to have an upper-hand over WhatsApp. Mobile apps analytics firm Sensor Tower has reported that from January to April 2021, Signal witnessed its first-time downloads growing 1,192 percent year-over-year (YoY) to 64.4 million worldwide, while Telegram’s installations spiked 98 percent YoY to over 161 million. It was further seen that WhatsApp downloads all over the world have dropped to 43% from January to April. “Signal is an open-source app unlike WhatsApp which is very much under a corporate set-up. When industrialist interests seep in, security and promised encryption becomes murky: as has been known and proven in the public domain over and over. As a media person working in Kashmir, it is imperative to ensure your security and safety, when the surveillance is massive. Hence, Signal if I have to talk to a source, and WhatsApp for regular vanilla chats,” says Rounak Bhat, an alumnus of SCMC, Pune. A survey reveals that one in five respondents prefer Telegram over WhatsApp because they find it more secure and private. The features in telegram are vast; ranging from creating multiple channels, allowing 200+ users in a single group, sharing of large-size files and watching movies. When compared with WhatsApp, Signal has privacy features that lack on the former messaging application. Features like incognito keyboard, screen privacy, group invitation privacy etc. In Telegram, the end-to-end encryption mode has to be enabled. Otherwise, Telegram uses Client-Server encryption. Every day, users are becoming more aware and appre- hensive of the privacy policies of messaging apps. The miscommunication of policies has enabled Telegram and Signal to establish a strong base. The surveys and statistics paint a clear picture, but the larger question is about our data privacy in these times of high datafication.
10 Jan 2022
Shirin Panjoo
