HONG KONG / NEW DELHI / SINGAPORE – A topic has been trending on social media last week in Hong Kong, which is increasingly under Beijing’s watchful eye after a national security law imposed on the territory last year.
“We did it from ICQ to MSN, from MSN to WhatsApp. It’s not that difficult to switch to another app!” The line refers to popular instant messaging tools that have come and gone in the past 20 years.
It is an indication that people in the city have joined social media users around the world in a move to other messaging platforms because of privacy concerns, after WhatsApp discouraged many users by rewriting their terms of use on January 6.
The new terms will essentially allow Facebook, the owner of WhatsApp, to have access to certain personal information, such as contact lists, location, financial information and usage data.
Since then, WhatsApp rivals have seen a record amount of downloads.
Signal, a private messaging app, recorded 7.5 million downloads globally between January 6 and 10, after endorsements from names such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former US National Security Agency contractor , Edward Snowden. This represents a 43-fold increase over the previous week, according to Sensor Tower, an application analytics company.
Awareness of data privacy grew in Hong Kong after anti-government demonstrations in 2019, when protesters used anonymous messaging apps to avoid surveillance. © Reuters
Another messaging app, Telegram, said it accumulated more than 25 million new users worldwide between January 10 and 12, helping to surpass 500 million active users – compared to WhatsApp’s 2 billion monthly active users on February of last year.
Despite WhatsApp’s assurances that the company does not access and cannot access private conversations as they are automatically encrypted from end to end, it has failed to stop the mass migration.
Signal and Telegram overtook Apple and Google’s app stores in several countries last week, including the U.S., several European countries and Asian countries where WhatsApp is the dominant messenger.
“After seeing WhatsApp’s long list of personal data statements, I decided to change [to] Sign to protect my privacy, “said Kwok Ka-wing, chairman of the Hong Kong General Union of Financial Industry Employees, adding that he fears excessive control of Big Tech companies.
Kwok is among several Hong Kong activists, academics and celebrities who have asked people to abandon WhatsApp, which is used by about 80% of the city’s population. Awareness of privacy and data security grew in the financial center after widespread anti-government protests in 2019, when protesters used anonymous messaging apps to avoid police surveillance.
“The migration to Signal reflects growing concerns about privacy and security in general and the loss of trust in WhatsApp and Facebook, more specifically,” said Lokman Tsui, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who specializes in online privacy and communications .
“Facebook promised that it would not force WhatsApp to share data with them when they bought WhatsApp,” he said. “They broke that promise.”
Tsui added that Signal, a non-profit application that collects only the absolutely necessary metadata, has highlighted it in an increasingly crowded application field. Signal is supported by donations, including a $ 50 million loan from its co-founder Brian Acton, who also helped create WhatsApp and has long championed data privacy.
Some analysts believe that India, WhatsApp’s largest single market with a strong base of 400 million users, will not be significantly affected, despite the exodus reported elsewhere. © Reuters
To bring more people to Signal, Fiona Wong, 26, a Hong Kong graphic designer, contributed a public database that makes WhatsApp stickers usable on Signal.
“I hope this will encourage my friends and others to migrate,” she said. “At the end of the day, the success of a messaging app depends only on the people around it being actively using it,” she said.
WhatsApp’s new privacy rules aim to make it easier to place ads on other Facebook-owned platforms. This allows Facebook to monetize the free messaging service it acquired for $ 19 billion in 2014. Users who refuse to agree to the new terms starting on February 8 can only use limited functions afterwards.
Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog asked WhatsApp to postpone the deadline and “provide practical alternatives” to those who disagree with the new terms of continuing to use the service.
For now, Europe is the only region in the world where the new WhatsApp privacy terms do not apply, as the European Union’s strict privacy laws have authorized authorities to fine companies up to 4% of global annual revenue if they violate the regulations.
Still, in India, WhatsApp’s largest single market with a strong base of 400 million users, some analysts believe it will not be significantly affected, despite the exodus reported elsewhere.
“There will always be the layers of people with the most upward mobility and the most educated for privacy who will move [to other apps]obviously, but we’re not talking about two million users here, “Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst, founder and CEO of Greyhound Research, told Nikkei Asia.
“Even those two million, by the way, are not completely leaving WhatsApp and entering, say, Signal or Telegram. They are adding to it, ”he said.
“WhatsApp has made a lot of commitment to India and has essentially established the ecosystem of content players, of trading players around it, which allows it to thrive in the country,” said Gogia. “Purely from this perspective, neither Signal nor Telegram made any visible commitment to the country.”
Digital messaging users in Singapore are increasingly adopting rival WhatsApp platforms such as Telegram, even before WhatsApp announced its updated terms of service. (Photo by Akira Kodaka)
In fact, WhatsApp is commonly used by companies in Asia to communicate with customers, with many of them having custom chatbots for the app. The company launched WhatsApp Business in early 2018 and entered the world of payments in its two largest markets, India and Brazil.
Neha Bhatnagar, 40, a corporate communications professional in the Indian capital, said people on her contact list have started downloading Signal and Telegram in the past few days, while remaining active on WhatsApp.
“I even signed into Signal on Monday just to see how many people I know are now on it and found that about 100 of the more than 1,050 contacts on my phone added Signal. But all of my personal and official groups are still on WhatsApp and I intend to continue using the app, “she said, adding:” Why should I change? The data on your phone and laptop is already compromised [or] leaked any application you are using. There is nothing called ‘privacy’. “
Gogia, however, said that privacy is a very personal concept. “What may be too private for you may not be private for me.” He also noted that privacy sensitivity in India is less than in other Asian countries.
Users of digital messaging in Singapore have also increasingly adopted rival platforms for WhatsApp, such as Telegram, before WhatsApp even announced its updated terms of service. But WhatsApp remains widely used. In a report published in February last year, the data analysis platform DataReportal noted that 81% of internet users aged 16 to 64 in a survey said they used WhatsApp.
Su Lian Jye, principal analyst at technology analyst ABI Research, said he had not seen an exodus from WhatsApp in Singapore.
“I think the prevailing attitudes that make WhatsApp attractive in Singapore are in the strength of the WhatsApp brand, ease of use and simplicity,” he said. “In the West, privacy and the protection of personal data are the main concerns. People are actively looking for tools and solutions that prioritize these aspects.”
There are those in the city-state, however, who want to leave WhatsApp.
Justin Kan, 37, a financial advisor, downloaded Telegram and Signal to complement his use of Facebook’s messaging platform. But Kan acknowledged that he was unable to completely get rid of WhatsApp because most of his contacts are still using the platform, with less than 30 contacts on Signal.
“I still need to use WhatsApp,” said Kan. “But lately, I have seen more and more people joining Signal and Telegram, which is encouraging. This means that many people are also starting to see the impact that apps like WhatsApp have on our privacy.”
Likewise, Wong in Hong Kong admits that he cannot leave all Facebook platforms overnight, despite privacy concerns, due to a lack of good alternatives.
“But if the WhatsApp migration can be continued, it will motivate companies more concerned with privacy to compete with Facebook and Instagram and provide users with more options,” she said.