A report by the British newspaper “The Guardian” revealed that the “WhatsApp” messaging application
had lost millions of users in recent weeks, after announcing the launch of a controversial update that shared
their data with its parent company, Facebook.
Although “WhatsApp” postponed the launch of this update, which was scheduled to start on February 8th,
the application witnessed a “mass migration” to alternative services that users see as safer and more private,
such as “Signal” and “Telegram”.
During the first three weeks of January, 25 million people worldwide downloaded the Telegram application
on their phones, while Signal gained 7.5 million new users, according to figures published by the Home Affairs
Committee of the British Parliament.
Data suggests that these numbers tended to “abandon” WhatsApp, in an unprecedented decline in the number
of application users.
In the United Kingdom, for example, WhatsApp fell in the list of the most downloaded applications at
the beginning of January, from the eighth to the twenty-third place. On the other hand, the “Signal” application,
which was not among the thousand most downloaded applications in the country, rose to first place.
During days in the same month.
The Guardian quoted the Director of Public Policy for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at WhatsApp,
Niam Sweeney, as saying: “I believe that the mass migration from the application is related to the update
of the terms of service.”
“The goal of the update is to do two things: to enable a new set of features around business messaging,
to provide clarifications, and to provide greater transparency about pre-existing company policies,” said Sweeney.
And she continued, “There are no changes to sharing data with Facebook anywhere in the world.”
And “WhatsApp” announced the delay in launching the aforementioned update until mid-May, and confirmed
in a statement that “the new privacy policy does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family
in any way.”
