WhatsApp’s new privacy policy makes users switch to Signal

WhatsApp recently announced changes in its privacy policy, which made many people worried about their privacy.

As per the new policy, WhatsApp will share the data of users with its parent company Facebook. It also says that third-party services are integrated with their services and they may receive your information. That means, your information will be shared with other businesses as well. Users have to accept the new privacy policy and conditions by February 8, 2021, or else their account will be deleted.

Majority of Indians use WhatsApp. Hence, they are worried about data sharing and collection of additional information from them.

In this context, most of them are seeking alternatives to WhatsApp due to raised concerns on privacy.

With growing apprehensions in this matter on other social media platforms like Twitter, several people suggested switching to Signal or Telegram. These are seen as better alternatives to WhatsApp as they do not share the data of users with anyone.

Signal is a privacy-focused messaging app used by privacy researchers and security experts from across the world. The main difference between WhatsApp and Signal is that it is open source while WhatsApp is not. Signal app does not collect any data. It only stores your phone number.

Telegram is a free instant messaging app. It collects user ID, contact info and contacts.

In this context, here is a detailed list of information collected by Facebook-owned messaging apps.

Facebook messenger collects the following details: Name, phone number, email and physical address, contacts, other user contact info, photos, videos, search and browsing history, user ID and device ID, payment info and other financial information, advertising and other usage data, health, fitness and sensitive information.

WhatsApp collects user ID and device ID, phone number, email address, contact, coarse location, purchase history, advertising data, performance data, payment information, product interaction, crash data, other diagnostic data, and other user content.

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