Rafly G. Tech 01.09.2021 04:Jan AM EST

WhatsApp Hit By Privacy Concerns, Time to Move to Telegram?

Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov recently criticized Facebook, as Facebook has made it obligatory for WhatsApp users to consent to share their data with the tech giant or lose their accounts.

"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," the statement reads, as noted from Business Standard.

For the records, WhatsApp has become a part of Facebook Company since 2014. The freeware messaging platform recently rolled out a new privacy policy to share its users' data to the parent company, Facebook, and it will be effective from February 8.

"As part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information (see here) with, the other Facebook Companies," the statement reads.

Millions have been outraged by the move, as Facebook is well-known for its privacy breaching controversies over the last decade, including the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal. The British law firm harvested personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent for political advertising during the 2016 presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Growing Numbers

Telegram has been a strong competitor for Facebook and WhatsApp, with a whopping 500 million worldwide users and growing.

"Unable to compete with Telegram in quality and privacy, Facebook's WhatsApp seems to have switched to covert marketing: Wikipedia editors have recently exposed multiple paid bots adding biased information into the WhatsApp Wikipedia article," Durov said.

That said, if nothing changes regarding the shady business move that Facebook has been implying, there is a big chance that many users would move to Telegram and overtake WhatsApp as the best go-to place for cross-over messaging.

Another app to see a massive surge is Signal after endorsed by Elon Musk and Twitter's boss Jack Dorsey. More than 100,000 users installed the app from Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the last two days, while Telegram amassed a great 2,2 million download numbers.

Monopoly Practices

In recent years, Facebook has been going on an ambitious acquisition spree, with the latest being occurred in 2020 when Mark Zuckerberg purchased the popular GIF platform Giphy for $400 million.

Last December, 48 states in the US geared up and prosecuted Facebook for the move, accusing the tech giant of intentionally crushing its rivals instead of healthily competing. Led by New York-based attorney general Letitia James, the parallel lawsuit put Facebook under fire in a major antitrust offensive that could potentially force its breakup.

"For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users," says the attorney in a statement.

This policy means that WhatsApp will have the power to share your data to Facebook to "help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings, including the Facebok Company Products."