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WhatsApp Policy
customer privacy Privacy WhatsApp WhatsApp Policy

Russian expert predicts end of WhatsApp - Users switching to Telegram

Over the past weeks, WhatsApp messenger has started losing millions of users. They migrate to Telegram. In mid-January, almost 25 million people came running to Telegram in just three days. Some WhatsApp fans went to another social network - Signal. It gained 7.5 million users in two days.

The reasons for the outflow from WhatsApp are related to the privacy policy, which allows the developer to share user data with Facebook, explained the coordinator of the Center for Secure Internet, Urvan Parfentiev. In particular, according to him, the location and phone numbers will become transparent.

Information and computer security specialist, programmer, blogger Sergey Vakulin said that in addition to the privacy policy, there are other reasons.

"First reason is the privacy policy. The second is functionality. The third reason is anonymization. People who care about their security and privacy of correspondence are less likely to trust WhatsApp," said he.

According to Mr. Vakulin, the advantage of Telegram relative to many social networks is the lack of censorship.

There are those who like to watch something cruel, a murder. But on the social network VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, it is forbidden to do this. And on Telegram, you can create a channel that will not be censored", explained the blogger.

After the outflow of users, WhatsApp launched a powerful awareness-raising campaign and abandoned the previously announced measures. Therefore, "we cannot talk about the death of WhatsApp", stressed Parfentiev.

However, Vakulin believes otherwise.

"Most likely, we will see the death of WhatsApp. The old social networks and apps don't have enough functionality. A person needs to learn something new in the social network. Therefore, we are replacing it with a new one," commented he.

At the moment, dozens of messengers are known. The most popular in Russia are the following: in the first place is WhatsApp, which in 2020 increased by five percent compared to 2019; in second place is Viber, followed by Skype. The fourth place is taken by Telegram, which grew by 10 percent. Facebook closes the top five (plus 6 percent).

Earlier, E Hacking News conducted an interview with a veteran Cyber Law specialist in India Vijayashankar Na (Mr. Naavi) and he shared with us his opinion on the new privacy policy of WhatsApp messenger and how it impacts the users.

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WhatsApp Policy
Cyber Security Singapore SolarWind WhatsApp Policy

Singapore Assessing WhatsApp Privacy Policy Change, Not 'Adversely Affected' In SolarWinds Breach

 

Currently, it is safe to say that Singapore’s government and non-government departments are safe from the adverse effects of SolarWinds security breach, nevertheless, the Singapore government has made requests to their organizations to protect their systems against potential threats. 

Additionally, the government has also exhibited deep concern regarding upcoming privacy policy changes on WhatsApp messenger, which is one of the platforms employed by the government to provide information to their citizens. The Minister for Communications and Information, S. Iswaran, said that when we got the news regarding the big data breach threat (SolarWinds security breach), our Cybersecurity Agency (CSA) has raised the national cyber threat alert level and immediately started working towards it. 

"There is no indication, thus far, that Singapore's CII and government systems have been adversely affected by the SolarWinds breach," said Iswaran, who was responding to questions raised in parliament. He added that, "The government is, nonetheless, adopting a cautious stance." 

Furthermore, he said that the “CSA had issued public advisories on steps enterprises should take to safeguard their systems against potential threats, including having full visibility of their networks and detecting unusual activity in a timely manner. The situation still was evolving as affected companies continued to investigate the breach’’. 

While advising on the matter, he suggested for the government to move towards a Zero Trust security posture, where organizations should not trust any activities until verification and there should be constant surveillance and alertness towards suspicious activities. Organizations should be establishing strong cyber-attack response plans to cope up with such incidents, as chronicled in the recent past. 

"The SolarWinds incident underscores the global and trans-border nature of cyber threats," the minister noted, “Though difficult to completely prevent, we need deliberate, targeted, and consistent efforts to strengthen our cyber defenses against [such] sophisticated threats, which exploit the supply chain of trusted vendors and software." 

Singapore Government's WhatsApp Channel Has 1.22M Subscribers

Ministry has also responded to the questions regarding WhatsApp's upcoming privacy policy changes, explaining that the government is concerned regarding this too as consumers have raised their voices on the matter. According to Iswaran, at present, there are 1.22 million users to Singapore's Gov.sg WhatsApp channel, which is one of the many platforms used to reach our local population, including Telegram, Twitter, as well as its own Gov.sg website.

Further, he ensured, "Private-sector organizations contracted by the government to perform data-related activities, including the processing and communication of personal data, are bound by contractual terms and conditions. These will determine whether organizations are permitted to share, for their own commercial purposes, the data that has been provided by, or collected on behalf of, the government”.
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