“Use Signal” – Elon Musk. 3 things you need to know about WhatsApp before 8th February.

Starting February 8 2021, a whopping 4 million Singaporean WhatsApp users will be forced to accept the application’s new terms and conditions or have their accounts terminated. Are you one of them, and what should you do?

To make an informed decision, here are 3 things you need to know:

1. WhatsApp has not become less secure.
   Unlike telegram, it uses end-to-end message encryption; and it is secure cross-platform unlike iMessage.
   Signal however appears as a strong contender in terms of security
2. WhatsApp data sharing has not changed but know that it collects more data than its alternatives.
   Compared to the aforementioned alternatives, WhatsApp collects much more “data linked to you” (Refer to link below for specific breakdown).
3. You CANNOT stop Facebook from harvesting the “data linked to you”.
   Although they are still limited to comply with privacy laws (e.g. GDPR), the new terms allows WhatsApp and thus Facebook to assimilate our data to understand us and better market their products.

Although Signal proves to be a good alternative, we are not free from the burden of connecting with our communities through a common medium (Mostly WhatsApp today). To better understand why Elon Musk recommends Signal, it would benefit you to review this aricle.