The encrypted messaging app Signal says it is seeing a large number of new users signing up for the platform, so much so that the company is seeing delays in checking phone numbers for new accounts at various mobile providers.
As for what or who is responsible for so many new users interested in trying out the platform, which is operated by the nonprofit Signal Foundation, there are two likely culprits: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Signal’s competitor , Whatsapp.
Verification codes are currently overdue at a number of providers because many new people are trying to sign in now (we can barely register our enthusiasm). We are working with operators to resolve this as soon as possible. Hold on.
– Sign (@signalapp) January 7, 2021
Musk, who is now the richest person in the world after overtaking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in equity, tweeted a meme last night criticizing Facebook for his role in helping members of the crowd that broke into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to organize online. The tweet, an image of a series of ever-increasing dominoes, juxtaposed the beginning of Facebook as a site for ranking hot women or not on the Harvard University campus on a platform that in one way or another helped facilitate the attack. to Congress on Wednesday, while trying to certify Joe Biden as the president-elect.
Musk, who has been more vocal in his criticism of Facebook in recent years, followed the meme with a suggestion for his 41.5 million followers: download Signal, probably instead of using a Facebook product (although Musk did not call Facebook or WhatsApp specifically by name in any of your posts).
As for the controversy of WhatsApp, it is a little more complicated. While it is not immediately clear whether Musk was referencing or even aware of WhatsApp’s current privacy dispute, there is a growing reaction against Facebook’s proprietary messaging app resulting from the company’s plans to implement a new privacy policy on February 8 .
There is a great explainer of Ars Technica here, but the short version is that WhatsApp has outlined a new privacy policy that will take effect next month that no longer includes the language that indicates that it will allow users to choose to share data with parent company Facebook. Instead, the new policy expressly describes how WhatsApp will share data (things like your phone number, profile name and address book information) with Facebook.
“As part of the Facebook family of companies, WhatsApp receives and shares information from that family of companies,” says the new privacy policy. “We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information that we share with them to help operate, provide, improve, understand, personalize, support and market our Services and their offerings.”
Like Ars reports, the opt-out did not actually exist in the app for some time – it was a unique option introduced in 2016, and WhatsApp’s privacy policy has kept the language referring to it ever since. A Facebook spokesman said The Verge that the changes that will take effect next month aim to address data sharing between Facebook and WhatsApp with regard to messaging with companies, and that nothing is effectively changing with regard to consumer chats .
Facebook says it released these changes in October, with the announcement of new customer service and WhatsApp shopping features, some of which aired last month. He also says he will respect the cancellation preference of any WhatsApp user, although the cancellation option has not been available to new users for years, according to PCMag. And if you live in Europe, WhatsApp does not share data with Facebook for the purpose of targeting ads under any circumstances, as explained by Niamh Sweeney, WhatsApp policy director for the European, Middle East and Africa market, in a Twitter topic.
2/5 It has been incorrectly reported that the latest update to WhatsApp’s 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 fake.
– Niamh Sweeney (@NiamhSweeneyNYC) January 7, 2021
But what is happening now seems to be a collapse of the context on social media, as WhatsApp users think they are now being forced to share data with Facebook, although this is happening all the time if they didn’t choose to leave in 2016 None of this is helped by the recent Facebook and WhatsApp attacks on Apple due to the iPhone manufacturer’s decision to impose new self-reported labels on iOS apps and its future plans to force app makers to request permission to track device owners. Apple.
The new privacy policy warning also doesn’t help Facebook’s cause, considering it tells users dissatisfied with the changes – which, again, are about how companies manage their WhatsApp chats using the Facebook backend – to “Delete your account”, without other remedies provided.
All of this created a perfect storm on social media in which WhatsApp users seem to be fleeing the platform in large numbers to join Signal, a non-profit encrypted messaging app that does not belong to the largest social network on the planet. It is also worth mentioning Signal Messenger, LLC, the software organization that manages Signal’s product development, was co-founded and funded by Brian Acton, the disillusioned co-founder of WhatsApp who publicly criticized the privacy practices of his former employer.
Facebook declined to comment on the record or publish any public blog posts or statements about its WhatsApp privacy policy planned outside of Sweeney’s specific European comments, which is only adding to the confusion at this point. But the bright side of Signal is that this combination of events is generating a lot of interest for its platform as a viable mobile messaging app and an alternative to the Facebook ecosystem.