Telegram CEO Pavel Durov slams WhatsApp’s new privacy policy
With the announcement of the new privacy policy WhatsApp is facing criticism from everywhere so how could Telegram miss the chance.
Telegram CEO Pavel Valerievich Durov take a dig at WhatsApp and advised WhatsApp to respect your users.
Sharing a blog post on his channel on Telegram Durov wrote, “Millions of people are outraged by the latest change in WhatsApp Terms, which now say users must feed all their private data to Facebook’s ad engine. It’s no surprise that the flight of users from WhatsApp to Telegram, already ongoing for a few years, has accelerated.”
Mocking Facebook Durov wrote, “I hear Facebook has an entire department devoted to figuring out why Telegram is so popular. Imagine dozens of employees working on just that full-time. I am happy to save Facebook tens of millions of dollars and give away our secret for free: respect your users.”
He also wrote on his blog that several bots on different platforms are spreading misinformation about Telegram. Telegram has currently 500 million users and growing at a rapid rate since the announcement of the new privacy policy of WhatsApp. He added, “every chat on Telegram has been encrypted since launch…. Telegram has no servers or offices in Russia and was blocked there from 2018 to 2020.”
WhatsApp is a popular messaging app founded by former employees of Yahoo Jan Koum, Brian Acton but it was later sold to Facebook in 2014. It has features of video calls, voice calls, voice notes, and sharing images and GIFs.
Telegram is also a messaging app founded by two Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov
The new policy of WhatsApp
WhatsApp is facing backlash for its new privacy policy which states that the data will be shared with its parent company Facebook.
But what will be actually shared with Facebook?
WhatsApp will be sharing the following data with Facebook: account registration information or in simple terms phone number, transaction data as WhatsApp has now enrolled its payment feature in India, service-related information, information on how you interact with others including businesses, mobile device information, and IP address, and It will also collect information at the hardware level of a device.
WhatsApp explains the reason behind sharing data with Facebook, the company said that it is for improving security, fighting spam, and improving user experience. However, these points are already included in the previous policies of the messaging app.
The data shared will probably not lead to ads on the messaging app, but it will probably be used for improving ad experience across other platforms of the company.
The company explained that the messages will not be saved as WhatsApp ensures end-to-end encryption to chats but if the text cannot be delivered immediately the server will save the data for up to 30 days” in an encrypted form. After 30 days the message will be deleted from the server also.
Accepting the new terms and policies is compulsory for everyone. If terms and policies are not accepted before 8 February, you will not be able to use the app.
WhatsApp said: “The update does not change WhatsApp’s data-sharing practices with Facebook and does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family… WhatsApp remains deeply committed to protecting people’s privacy.”
Many think that it is time to shift from WhatsApp as it is invading the privacy of its user. A tweet from the world’s richest man Elon Musk reading “Use Signal” has lead to overnight registration of thousands of users on signal. Even telegram is considered as a good alternative for WhatsApp.
Even WhatsApp uses the Protocol of Signal app to secure its contents.
