New WhatsApp Privacy Policy – Migration to Telegram & Signal
WhatsApp updated its privacy policy and terms of service on 7 January 2021, stating that users must accept them by 8 February 2021 and this created a social media buzz as users were not in agreement with the privacy policy. WhatsApp has announced that it is now one of the Facebook companies and had a clause in the privacy policy that allows Facebook to share data from WhatsApp across its other products.
Users around the world, including South Africans, have flocked to Telegram of course seeking a platform with much greater privacy. Telegram founder Pavel Durov states that the messaging app has seen a tremendous increase in its users since the beginning of January. “This growth is much larger than Telegram saw last year,” said Durov.
Now with all this backlash from users, WhatsApp has delayed the introduction of the new privacy policy to 15 May 2021 while it explains the changes clearly. Facebook, which now owns WhatsApp highlighted that WhatsApp’s terms and service and privacy policy are only about business messaging. Facebook further states that WhatsApp messages are not stored on the Facebook servers and strongly claims that it will not access any of those messages for ad-targeting. It also added that there will be no change in WhatsApp data with Facebook for non-business chats and account information.
WhatsApp is the dominant mobile messaging platform and to stop using it is easier said than done. Even with the great amount of growth in users for Telegram other messaging apps like Signal, WhatsApp still remains dominant in South Africa.
The big question is, Will the delay of introduction ease users and have them flock back to WhatsApp? Or is it now time for a real change in these messaging apps.