Why you don’t need to join the great WhatsApp migration

what terrible advice. It is UN-CLEAR from the change in the WA privacy policy document that the private encryption key will now be held by you ALONE. It used to say that specifically, but now that sentence is gone. hence they will potentially be able to read your messages. It doesnt matter that its a vanilla cake recipe, the intention is to read what you say, where you are and who you connect with. SIGNAL is a not-for profit, and since Elon Musk with is 40M legion of followers promoted it (last thursday), its thanks to him that SIGNAL will achieve critical mass of having enough users on it to be useful. So Yes, to break the tracking of you life, you SHOULD join everyone else and move to signal. we are being given one chance to break out of the FB tracking of messaging apps. use it. get behind it. its a net positive to the humanity. Telegram is for other things. ignore that. its very unlikely to get critical mass of users to become defaut like WA is now. If you arent VERY concerned about FB and online activity tracking for data re-sale, and advertising, you should lift your head out of the sand. Emma Sadleir, unfortunately doesnt see or talk about the root problem or the opportunity. She might as well work in the Digital social media tracking industry. oh, yea - i forgot she does. Nothing wrong with that per se, but readers of her message must notice where her message is coming from.

YEAH BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT. The new Ts&Cs specifically give fb access to data on two other things, not message-content related: (1) purchase transactions, including delivery addresses, when you purchase anything through the platform (OK, big deal, so don't do that, but wait, there's more) (2) *your entire contacts list on your phone,* including all their details like phone nos and addresses. Now that *IS* a big deal. Ms Sadleir should do a little more research before dismissing the "hysteria".

Prepare yourself and your contacts for a flood of targeted advertising if you stay on WhatsApp. The only good thing I can see is that it may perhaps become a competitor to Google for business' advertising budgets. But still... no thanks. Facebook is not Google and while Google indeed dropped their "Don't be evil" slogan years ago, Zuckerberg can never erase the historical fact that he started out with a website rating women on campus. Nice, huh? Leopard doesn't change its spots. Bye bye WhatsApp.

Agree with others that this isn't really the point. It's what they DO with our data; not only commercially, but also politically. Eg Facebook playing no small role in DJ Trump's rise to power and Brexit and who knows what else.

There are too many holes in the article to go through. The following is readilly available to view on the internet. Who collects what: ----WhatsApp Data Collection Device ID User ID Advertising Data Purchase History Coarse Location Phone Number Email Address Contacts Product Interaction Crash Data Performance Data Other Diagnostic Data Payment Info Customer Support Product Interaction Other User Content ----Telegram Data Collection Contact Info Contacts User ID ----Signal Data Collection None It only stores your phone number

Sorry, the above was a list but it appears top have been concatenated

Sadleir is naive about the potential for the collected data to be used for evil purposes. FB has proven to all of us that they have no scrouples and will sell your data to anyone who pays - be that brexiteers, fashists or fake news russians (just to mention the few). This article and the video are misleading and wrong about the dangers the new WhatsApp policies represent. The new WhatsApp terms are a big deal already and they are only the beginning. We can expect FB to expand the terms over time to gain access to ever more of your metadata. Delete your FB account now and uninstall WhatsApp!

So we are all ..'hysterical' ?

WhatsApp collected data will be used to add value to what is already harvested from you via Facebook - it's a 1 + 1 = 3 story. So the solution is easy - delete your Facebook account - you really don't need it. That way, WhatsApp has a collection of data whose value has gone down just like its reputation ....

Telegram have just passed 500m active users now. Still a fraction of WA.

Like most things in life, this is another first step in a long journey to message control? Facebook is an unwanted parasitic entity designed to bend ones mind through unwanted and unappreciated control and direction of advertising.

I would love to know why GDPR protects the EU citizens from this, but POPI does not do the same for SA citizens - when by all accounts POPI is a stricter version of GDPR. Or is it just South Africa's poor reputation for pursuing legal breaches?

Thanks for that info Terry Reynolds. Can you or someone please answer this question. I've never used any social media, Facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc., only WhatsApp, where access to my location is switched off. Which of the items on your list will WhatsApp be able to collect. Observation: Remember Skype? Who still uses it? WhatsApp pretty well drove the last nail into it's coffin. In a few years time when Telegram and Signal have so many users that they become attractive for someone like Zuckerberg to purchase, will they be able to resist the pressure to sell. Then we'll go through all the same privacy issues again. Seems like this is humankind's lot for the foreseeable future.

I think the point is missed - "It's the out of control tech giant that need to be dumped, e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp." We surrendered privacy knowingly and carelessly long ago. Now it is just plan freedom from big tech/media that we need. We need small guys. As so clearly stated recently in the Maverick - "God bless incompetent idiots (the small guys), for they will save the world from better-organised conspiracies that would cause lasting damage." Branko Brkic

WhatsApp text and video messages are only encrypted until they are backed up. If you need to fly below the radar, use voice only or don’t allow text and video back up. To stop back up go to WhatsApp, Settings, Chats, Chat Backup (here you can read how it works) Go to Auto Backup and select option Off. If you were not on Off, your text and video messages have been saved and are not encrypted. I believe the authorities can legally access these messages should evidence in connection with criminal activity be required.