The number of new users installing messaging app Signal every day is on track to cross 1 million, putting it closer to levels seen by larger rival WhatsApp, following an update to the Facebook Inc-owned app's privacy policy.
About 810,000 users globally installed Signal on Sunday, nearly 18-fold compared with the download numbers on Jan. 6, the day WhatsApp updated its privacy terms, according to data from research firm Apptopia.
WhatsApp's new privacy terms reserve the right to share user data, including location and phone number, with its parent Facebook Inc and units such as Instagram and Messenger.
Privacy advocates have questioned the move citing Facebook's track record in handling user data, with many suggesting users to migrate to platforms such as Telegram and Signal.
In its FAQ section, WhatsApp has said that the new privacy policy does not affect the privacy of your messages with your friends and family. As per the company, the update will only affect the messages sent to business accounts on WhatsAp, which it adds is an optional feature.
PhonePe’s founder and CEO Sameer Nigam wrote on the micro-blogging service Twitter that he had moved over 1,000 staff members from WhatsApp to Signal. Signal and Telegram are seeing an influx of users as a result of the controversy with Whatsapp.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov on January 11 stated that his instant messaging app will never monetise users’ private data for profiling for targeted advertisement.Durov added that those users who use Telegram for peer-to-peer private communication and don't use Telegram’s one-to-many channels are not going to see any ads.
He said, We will never force you to view 30-second ads on Telegram. If we ever introduce ads, the ads will be shown only in large one-to-many channels which are expensive to run due to server and traffic costs (like my channel @durov) and not targeted based on any private data (unlike Facebook). So, no collecting private data, no user profiling etc. And if you don't use our one-to-many channels (which are non-existent in all other messaging apps), you won't see a single ad. All parts of Telegram devoted to messaging will remain ad-free. We think that displaying ads in private 1-to-1 chats or group chats is a bad idea. Communication between people should be free of advertising of any sort.
Paytm founder and billionaire Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Monday urged users to leave WhatsApp for encrypted messaging platform Signal over mounting privacy concerns.
Signals witnessed a massive 1100 per cent jump in its share price, and all the credit goes to Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his tweets controversy about new WhatsApp Privacy policy.
0 Comments