In January, a wave of users shifted from WhatsApp to Signal due to Facebook’s changing privacy options. Maybe it should take note.
In January, a wave of users shifted from WhatsApp to Signal due to Facebook’s changing privacy options. Maybe it should take note
In January, those notifications started coming in earnest, marking a swarm of friends migrating over a day or so
It’s encouraging to see that people do pay attention to these inch-byinch data grabs, and that they’re willing to switch to a new service
My buzzing phone was the first sign that something was up. Whenever a contact in my phone joined Signal, the app would let me know; it’s a quirk of the privacy-focused messaging app that it broadcasts when you join. Those first pings turned into a mass migration in January, with a flood of new Signal users — all because of Facebook’s ongoing disdain for privacy.
When I first installed Signal many years ago, the contacts who popped up were fellow journalists, interview subjects for features on privacy and a small handful of forward-thinking friends who had long ago uninstalled Facebook. That meant Signal wasn’t very helpful as a default messaging tool, as it lacked any network effect: if everyone’s on WhatsApp, that’s the app I’m going to use.
Anyway, WhatsApp had solid privacy and security, based as it is on the same system as Signal, albeit with differences in implementation. Signal favours privacy in all cases, while WhatsApp wants people to easily share GIFs (although Signal has since added fun features such a GIF search and emoji responses). Most importantly, both are end-to-end encrypted, meaning the providers of the apps can’t read the gossip flung around in chat groups.
My friends and families remained steadfastly on WhatsApp, with a few holdouts on Facebook Messenger. But in January, those notifications started coming in earnest, marking a swarm of friends migrating over a day or so.
And it wasn’t just my friends. The migration crashed Signal’s servers, with 7.5 million new users added in a single week in January – 43 times more than the prior week. The app had 20 million users in December and double that the following month.
Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 for $16 billion,which arguably should have caught more attention from regulators as it came on the heels of the controversial social network buying Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion. Facebook left WhatsApp largely at arm’s length for years, but it’s lately revealed plans to bring WhatsApp, Instagram and its own Messenger onto the same platform, so they’ll be interoperable, letting an Instagram user send a message to someone on WhatsApp. It’s not there yet but, as 2021 arrived, Facebook asked users to agree to new terms that would allow it to access some WhatsApp data.
Well, sort of. For my North American friends, a careful read of those terms revealed two key changes. First, businesses could now use Facebook services to manage their chats with individuals. For example, if you decided to ask a business a question using its official WhatsApp account, it could be answered by a Facebook chatbot. That would tell Facebook you’re interested in that business, which feeds into the second change regarding integrations with Facebook — in short, you could be advertised to off the back of that information, if you choose to engage with businesses using your WhatsApp account. The messages themselves remain encrypted, so neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can snoop on what you say, even if they want to.
The details of the changes to the terms differed depending on where you lived. Here in the UK, our update doesn’t include the latter section, and doesn’t come into force until May; like me, you may have a lingering terms update notification you’ve been avoiding clicking “accept” on. My EU friends had no concerns at all, as the two companies have been blocked from linking services in this way thanks to legal challenges backed by data protection law.
It’s unclear to me why this move was the final straw for so many WhatsApp users – not least the ones who continue to use Facebook and Instagram. Although I think Signal is the superior app, it’s a wee bit irritating that I now have two messaging apps to attend to.
On a more positive note, it’s encouraging to see that people do pay attention to these inch-by-inch data grabs, and that they’re willing to switch to a new service. That such a negligible change inspired people to learn a new app, as well as convince their contacts to do the same, shows that people may be approaching the end of their patience with Facebook and wider privacy invasions.
It’s even better that my friends in Berlin weren’t even aware of the data grab. They didn’t have to worry because regulators did their jobs. While I’m happy that people in my life are concerned about privacy, I’d be even happier if they didn’t have to worry about it at all.