The richest person in the world Elon Musk is asking people to switch to a messaging app called Signal over WhatsApp and Facebook because of a change in their policy that has raised privacy concerns.
Tesla Musk CEO appealed to people switching to more encrypted apps than WhatsApp and Facebook and made particular reference to Signal when asked about a safer alternative by his followers.
Musk’s tweet comes after Signal and Telegram’s messaging apps saw a sharp rise in demand due to the increasingly competitive terms of WhatsApp’s updated service on social media.
WhatsApp will share its users ’personal information, including phone numbers, IP addresses, addresses, & more with Facebook from Feb. 8, according to the new T&Cs. No withdrawal. The only way to make a complaint is to leave the service & transfer to a service such as Signal or Telegram. https://t.co/FbGcq5T3JB
– Mike Butcher (@mikebutcher) January 6, 2021
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WhatsApp, which uses Signal encryption technology, released new terms on Wednesday, urging users to agree to allow the owner of Facebook Inc and its subsidiaries to collect user data, giving enter their phone number and location.
Some privacy campaigners questioned the “accept our data or find out” move on Twitter, and suggested that users switch to apps like Signal and Telegram.
Signal went viral later Thursday after receiving support from Elon Musk, who has one of the most followed accounts on Twitter and with the head of the micro-blogging site Jack Dorsey.
More than 100,000 Signal users have surpassed Apple and Google app stores in the past two days, and Telegram picked up nearly 2.2 million downloads, according to data analytics firm Sensor Tower.
New shares of WhatsApp fell 11 percent in the first seven days of 2021 compared to the previous week, but that still amounted to about 10.5 million downloads worldwide, Sensor Tower said.