The encrypted messaging program Singal sees an influx of new users signing up for the service following an update to Facebook’s privacy policy owned by Facebook, and an approval from Elon Musk on Twitter.
As Ars Technica reported, Signal saw so many new users sign up that there were delays in verifying phone numbers of new accounts.
RELATED: WHATSAPP MAKES DATA SHARING WITH FACEBOOK
Confusion over WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy Update
It all started when WhatsApp outlined a new privacy policy that will take effect next month. Compared to previous policies, the new policy does not indicate that it will allow users to share data for the parent company Facebook.
Instead, the policy directly states that WhatsApp will share data (including your phone number, profile name and address book information) with Facebook.
“As part of the Facebook family of companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, this family of companies,” the new Privacy Policy say.
“We can use the information we receive from them, and they can use the information we share with them to help operate, deliver, improve, understand, adapt, support and market our services and their offerings,” it continues .
Now, Facebook employees have gone so far as to tell the rival social media platform Twitter that nothing has changed effectively.
2/5 It has been incorrectly reported that WhatsApp’s latest update of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy requires users in the European region to agree to share data with Facebook for advertising purposes in order to continue using the Service. This is false.
– Niamh Sweeney (@NiamhSweeneyNYC) 7 January 2021
Still, several posters on the thread of Niamh Sweeney responded above, saying they deleted their WhatsApp accounts.
Signal is Elon endorsement
Around the same time, Elon Musk, who had recently been criticized on Facebook, tweeted ‘Use Signal’ to his 41.6 million followers.
Use Signal
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 7 January 2021
Musk, who was also recently announced as the richest man in the world mailed a meme that reinforces the role of Facebook in the attack on Congress this week.
It already seems to have had a cumulative effect, leading millions of users to leave WhatsApp for Signal, a privacy-oriented, non-profit service co-founded and funded with Brian Acton., the co-founder of WhatsApp who left the company when he became disillusioned with Facebook’s privacy practices.
Verification codes are currently being delayed in several providers because so many new people are currently trying to join Signal (we can barely register our excitement). We work with carriers to resolve this as quickly as possible. Hang in there.
– Sein (@signalapp) 7 January 2021
As The edge points out, WhatsApp has issued a lengthy statement saying that the policy update does not change the way data is shared between the messaging app and Facebook.
It now appears that years of shady practices, identified by the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, may be on the verge of many users leaving WhatsApp forever.