To Signal or not to Signal ?

The mess that WhatApp/Facebook has landed themselves into has a long list of reasons. The lack of trust is is not a sudden one off, but a culmination of various scandals like Cambridge Analytica (influencing the voters) and the clandestine listening to you all the time. So when they announced in a not-so-subtle-manner that they are going to start sharing your data from WhatsApp to Facebook, they have faced a backlash which I do not think they ever expected ! 

And an exodus has started from WhatsApp to other apps - foremost being Signal and Telegram. 

This post covers Signal. 

It all started with a tweet by Elon Musk. 

Use Signal

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021

It soon became the no1 app being downloaded in India and other places. 

Look at what you've done. 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/0YuqyZXtgP

— Signal (@signalapp) January 8, 2021

As of today, it has grown 500% from 10M+ downloads to 50M+ downloads in just a week ! That's like an app's dream coming true. 

How it started vs how it's going 😅 pic.twitter.com/ERiFpZUz6c

— Signal (@signalapp) January 14, 2021

 

And you are probably one of those 50M people who have downloaded Signal, but all you hear is crickets.. 

I've have been using @signalapp and @telegram for more than a year now. But with hardly anyone else using it, its like solo playing a multiplayer game. :-/ https://t.co/Q9QHrZKhTz

— V. (@vibhurishi) January 8, 2021

So why, you are thinking, should I use Signal ? 

Let me show you an infographics by Forbes as to why. See this:

Here you can see the amount of data that is being collected which can be linked to you by Signal (almost nothing) to Facebook Messenger (OMG ! you think, I didn't even know that there was so much data that Facebook is collecting). Well, with the upcoming changes, the amount of data that WhatsApp will collect will be similar to the ones that Facebook Messenger was collecting.

What's interesting is how this all rolled out. It all started with Apple. 

Apple is touting that they have privacy built in. Unlike Google (against which the initial salve was targetting imho), they do not make money from ads. Since they do not need ads, they do not need to data mine what the people are doing. They made changes to the iOS so that people can see what data is being captured with new privacy labels which tell exactly what all data is being used by the apps. I suspect facebook knew that people did not know what all they were collecting, so they tried a preemptive strike by bringing out full page ads ( Facebook criticizes Apple’s iOS privacy changes with full-page newspaper ads ) decrying Apple's move and saying small business will be hurt. 

But Vibhu, you may say - Privacy is an illusion! 

I do not think so. I think that saying privacy is an illusion is a ploy to normalize privacy concerns. Yes, a lot of your data is out there, but that does not mean that you knew about it all going out the way it is right now. People are just waking up to what privacy is. If someone hacks your account - its a crime  - no matter if your data is available freely or not. The updated T&C are a means to remove the legal culpability by companies which mine your data. Your privacy is yours. Its not for others. You will surely feel offense if some salesman comes in to your house and starts looking over all the things you have and then start giving you pitches about what you buy. This is the same with the tech companies. They are looking at your conversations and things you like/react to and its difficult to figure out whether they are looking over all your belongings (unless something happens like what Apple has done to show the privacy labels). There is hardly any government policies in place which limit what someone can do, and so they are doing what they want. 

A very good example of the above is that in Europe, WhatsApp is not forcing people to accept these new Terms and Conditions. The Indian government has asked them why is that ? The answer of course is that European Union has implemented the GDPR laws which penalizes anyone who tries to circumvent the privacy. Till the time that the other governments wake up, its up to you to protect your privacy. 

So - to Signal or not - I would say - definitely yes. Even Edward Snowden says to use it with a very good reason : 

Here's a reason: I use it every day and I'm not dead yet. https://t.co/Trhgqbwdpj

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 7, 2021

You may say there is hardly anyone there. Well, there was a time when there was hardly anyone on Twitter or Facebook. 

You may say that you don't want to keep on moving apps. Unfortunately that is going to stay until some good regulations are adopted by each company regarding privacy. Until then, your privacy is your concern.