Why WhatsApp users are pushing family members to Signal

When WhatsApp users started freaking out about privacy in the messaging app last month, Kevin Woblick knew it was time to encourage his family to switch to another chat service: Signal.

The 30-year-old German software developer addressed the issue after Edward Snowden leaked classified documents detailing America’s mass surveillance program. But Woblick was unable to convince his family to delete WhatsApp, despite Snowden’s news and the global turmoil surrounding digital privacy that followed. So this time, he took a more delicate approach.

“It wouldn’t be too inconvenient to have a second messenger on your phone, right?” he asked his family. He found it funny that his grandmother was the first to agree to download the app. Then, the rest of his family followed him.

Woblick and his family are among the exodus of WhatsApp users fleeing Facebook’s messaging app for services like Signal, which are seen as safe alternatives. Making the change is not easy, because people naturally gravitate towards the apps that their friends and family use and then stay with them. In India, WhatsApp’s biggest market, switching to another messaging service is even more difficult due to its huge reach.

WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014 for $ 19 billion, is used by more than 2 billion people in more than 180 countries. The popular app is an online space where people go to chat, shop and share news. More than 175 million people send messages daily to a company on WhatsApp, allowing them to browse or buy items, from cakes to flights. The messaging app, however, was also criticized for not doing enough to stem the spread of misinformation that fuels violence. In 2018, false rumors about child abductors sparked violence and murders in India, prompting WhatsApp to limit message forwarding.

The outrage over privacy on WhatsApp began to grow in January, when the service notified users that it was updating its privacy policy and terms of service. The update included details on how WhatsApp data can be used and shared when a user sends a message to a company in the app. Some users thought the changes meant that WhatsApp could read your messages and listen to your personal calls. WhatsApp said that the messaging service cannot read personal messages because they are encrypted from end to end, and that the changes do not expand the app’s ability to share data with Facebook.

WhatsApp responded to the consequences by postponing the update until May. She placed advertisements in newspapers in India, shared more information on her website and used Status, a tool that allows users to post content that disappears within 24 hours, to assure people that their personal messages on WhatsApp remain private.

Thanks to everyone who got in touch. We are still working to avoid any confusion by communicating directly with @Whatsapp Commercial. No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8 and we will return our business plans until after May – https://t.co/H3DeSS0QfO

– WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) January 15, 2021

By now, however, the damage was done.

From January 1 to January 25, compared to December 7 to December 31, Signal installations increased by 4,868%, while WhatsApp downloads fell by about 16%, according to data from the data analysis company SensorTower. At one point, the increase in new users led to a one-day outage at Signal. A Signal spokesman said the app “broke a record in January”, but did not say how many users are in the app.

Unlike WhatsApp, Signal is not owned by a company. It is funded by a non-profit organization created by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton, who co-founded WhatsApp, but left the social media giant in 2017. In addition to user indignation, the encrypted messaging service was also endorsed by personalities, including Snowden and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

David Choffnes, an associate professor of computer science at Northeastern University, said that WhatsApp’s policy updates may have rekindled concerns about Facebook’s weak privacy record. He pointed to the scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, a British political consultancy, which collected data from about 87 million Facebook users without their permission.

“The whole world has lost a lot of confidence on Facebook,” said Choffnes, adding that WhatsApp’s reaction “was like a powder keg ready to catch fire.”

Nidhi Hegde, director of strategy and programs for the American Economic Liberties Project in Washington, DC, said his family uses a combination of WhatsApp and Signal. Some did not want to switch to a new messaging service, especially after WhatsApp delayed its privacy updates. On Thursday, WhatsApp was in third place in the main Apple applications for social networks, and Signal was in 12th.

“I think this has made many more people (like my mom and older relatives) who are not particularly tech savvy or thinking about privacy to become more aware of the power of Facebook and how their personal data is exploited to feed advertising targeted Facebook business, “said Hegde by email. “And now they are significantly concerned that they have no choice but to accept the terms.”

What’s up with WhatsApp?

Last month, WhatsApp users received a notice stating that the app’s 3,800-word privacy policy and 5,000-word terms of service were being updated to include information about user data processing, companies’ ability to use Facebook services to manage chats and the relationship between WhatsApp and Facebook. The notice linked to the revised policies, but did not outline the exact changes that users would agree to if they accepted the updates.

The changes explain what happens to your data when you send a message to a company on WhatsApp, which is different from chatting with friends and family. Some companies may make communications available to a third-party service provider that manages their chats with customers, which may include Facebook, says the revised privacy policy. WhatsApp labels chats with companies that use Facebook services to manage their conversations. A WhatsApp FAQ about the changes also notes that when a person sends a message to a company, the store can use that information for marketing, which can include Facebook ads.

Some users thought the updates meant that WhatsApp would force them to share personal data with Facebook for the first time. (But WhatsApp is already sharing data with Facebook to suggest content and connections, and to display “relevant offers and ads.” The company updated its privacy policy in 2016 to reflect this and WhatsApp users that year were allowed to choose to this data sharing.)

On social media, WhatsApp users quickly started sharing strategies on how to get family and friends to switch to Signal or other messaging apps.

Siddharth Rao created a public Google document that he shared on Twitter entitled “How to start a conversation about the Signal app with your family.” Rao, a security and privacy researcher in Finland, said he is trying to learn more from WhatsApp users about their migration experience to Signal and whether they stayed after the move. Many of the people who added it to the document still have “one leg” on WhatsApp and the other on Signal, he said.

We started a Google document on how to “start a conversation about the #SignalApp app with your family “https://t.co/EDDwVGSZA2

The idea is to create guidelines curated by the community to help your family switch to Whatsapp Signal.

Please RT, share and contribute

– Sid Rao (@ sidnext2none) January 10, 2021

One strategy included in the document is to lie and tell people that WhatsApp is ending. Other tips include making it easier for users to delete WhatsApp after trying Signal, disabling notifications from the Facebook-owned app.

Shachin Bharadwaj, a businessman who divides his time between India and California, said he received anxious messages from his parents after the privacy changes were announced, worried that WhatsApp would read his chats. The 38-year-old businessman said he also remembers watching videos, including one that called Facebook “evil” and said the company was planning to listen to users’ conversations.

Bharadwaj knows that private messages remain encrypted on WhatsApp, but that hasn’t stopped him from downloading Signal last month. He used WhatsApp to order items like medicines in India, but he feels that there is “a lot going on” on the Facebook service and wants to keep his chats more personal, like family chats, on Signal. It now divides its messages between applications.

“I don’t think you can ever leave WhatsApp because of the situation in India today,” said Bharadwaj, pointing to the number of WhatsApp users in that country. “But my idea was to move quality conversations to Signal.”

As for Woblick, he thinks it will “take too long” before he feels comfortable deleting WhatsApp, because some of his friends have remained in the app. For now, however, he is fine with using both. “For me it was more important to take that first step and migrate the most important people and contacts to Signal so that I can work with them without having to use WhatsApp,” he said.