With WhatsApp announcing that they will soon start sharing data with Facebook, this has led to a bit of a panic where people are worried about what kind of data will be shared, and what it means for privacy. So much so that they have started to flock to other more privacy-based apps like Signal and Telegram.
In fact, according to a tweet by the official Telegram account, the company is claiming that in the past 72 hours, they’ve seen a rise in the number of new users where a total of 25 million or so users have since signed up for their services. This allowed the app to blow past the 500 million active user mark.
Telegram surpassed 500 million active users. 25 million new users joined in the last 72 hours: 38% came from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from Latin America and 8% from MENA. https://t.co/1LptHZb9PQ
— Telegram Messenger (@telegram) January 12, 2021
That being said, WhatsApp has since come forward to clarify what the changes in their privacy policy means for users. Basically, the company is saying that they cannot read your messages in individual or group chats as those are essentially encrypted. Also, debunking some of the misleading information making their rounds, WhatsApp does not monitor who you chat with or your call logs.
Instead, it seems that the changes will mostly affect business accounts and people who chat with businesses, where the data will be used to apparently improve on the experience as well as help create more personalized ads.
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