
Koum in some reports is still connected to Facebook. Sounds dystopian but it’s Mark Zuckerberg’s company and it’s down to him how he runs it for better (or for worse).Īs for the founders Koum and Acton, they have both gone their separate ways. With information obtained from Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and now WhatsApp, will allow Facebook to develop a pretty sophisticated marketing machine which is a dream for all marketing folks around the world but we’ll never know how that information is ultimately used. In a nutshell, the new policy will allow WhatsApp to share data with Facebook. Interestingly, because of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements, users in the EU would not be subject to the new policy. The straw that ultimately broke the camel’s back was an extremely visible announcement made by WhatApp for a new privacy policy which users have to accept by 8 February 2021 or cease using the app.
SIGNAL VS WHATSAPP ANDROID
Want to save your chats? You can, but the files are not cross compatible, as Apple users need to use iCloud and Android users can back up on Gmail and guess what? Apple users cannot reinstall from Gmail and vice versa, so switching platforms is a pain.
SIGNAL VS WHATSAPP PC
For one thing, its features are rather antiquated, as users can only have the app on one phone, and on one PC using the web interface. Ultimately this turned out well when Facebook acquired WhatsApp to the tune of US$19.3 billion in February 2014.Įven before its acquisition, WhatsApp was one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, and Facebook acquisition took the app to a wider group of users, though it also brought along a good amount of drama behind it. Interestingly, both founders applied to Facebook sometime in 2007 but were rejected. WhatsApp was launched in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum. Some might even recall that WhatsApp used to be a paid app, before it went free, and before it was acquired by Facebook. WhatsApp is not the same WhatsApp that you had downloaded the very first time you owned an Apple iPhone. Number of users: 2 Billion active users (March 2020)Ĭlaim to fame: Probably your first chat app on your very first smartphone Here are comparable, if not superior alternatives for you, to bring your next group chats on, and let’s face it, what you choose is dependent on features, your political inclinations and if you have the will to make all your friends migrate with you. The alternatives are free, but as they say, if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. And while it might not be abandoning anything, Telegram is reporting it gained 25 million users in 72 hours, which means users are tired of the change in rules.īut the alternatives out there… are not quite as simple. Except in Europe, because strict data protection laws are preventing Facebook from doing this thing.īut short of moving to Europe, there’s little you can do, because this has been going on for quite some time, and your only option is to abandon WhatsApp for an alternative.

Even though the company has always said this would happen, and in some cases, it already happened. This sent alarm bells ringing to even the most nonchalant of folks like your boomer uncle.
SIGNAL VS WHATSAPP FREE
Recently, Facebook-owned WhatsApp alerted users that information obtained from their chats on the platform will be shared across the Facebook family and the free social network service will be using that information with advertisers, to help companies market their products more efficiently, based on the level of interest you’re sharing. We hold it close to our hearts when it’s comfortable, but we readily hand over our email, phone number and even home address for random contests, believing deep down that those personal information will never find their way in the wrong hands.īut reality has caught up with us and while we readily trade personal information to use many services for ‘free’ *coughGmailcoughFacebookcough*, this tradeoff is coming to the end of the road. Privacy in the modern era is a tricky thing.
