May 15th, 2021, the day that many privacy champions have dreaded, is finally here.
Facebook is going ahead with its planned privacy policy changes for WhatsApp. The policy gives Facebook the ability to collect (even more) user data from its current and upcoming eCommerce features in WhatsApp. When users first saw these privacy changes in January 2021, an expansive global backlash led to a 4x jump in the number of Telegram & Signal installs – both companies beat WhatsApp in installs! The PR nightmare and the user exodus ultimately forced Facebook to delay accepting the policy until May 15th, 2021.
The key phrase to note is the Facebook only delayed the acceptance of its privacy policy.
They only allowed users more time to read the policy so that they could accept the terms – it was not to enable Facebook to more time to make changes to its privacy policy. Therefore if a user does not accept the terms today, they will lose certain app functionality before gradually getting locked out entirely and getting their accounts deleted.
Forbes writer Zack Doffman made this fantastic comparison of the data collection done by Facebook and other companies.
https://twitter.com/UKZak/status/1349857934679961601?s=20
Many of my WhatsApp friends have started moving to Signal and Telegram. They want to save their chats from getting read by Facebook or by government agencies. Unfortunately, the alternatives are not as saintly as one may want them to be. Telegram does not encrypt end-to-end conversations, running them through the Telegram cloud owned by a Russian billionaire operating from undisclosed locations.
On the other hand, Signal is a nonprofit entity:
https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1348760944088731648?s=20
Therefore Signal will require donations to fund their growth or, at some point, start looking for new sources of revenue to support their growth. Signal may have to add more features to provide value for its services unless users value their privacy enough to donate or subscribe to Signal.
