My article on #DeleteWhatsApp campaign and rise of Signal, is published in NewsMeter.

https://newsmeter.in/interviews/whatsapp-new-policy-why-are-users-shifting-to-signal-telegram-672724

“With the growing privacy awareness among people, we are witnessing popular trends like #WhatsAppExodus & #DeleteWhatsApp. People are exploring privacy alternatives, resulting in a huge spike in people switching to Signal.

Signal is a free software where its source code is publicly available. It is offered by a non-profit organisation named Signal Technology Foundation whose mission is to develop “Free and open source privacy technology that protects free expression and enable secure global communication”.

Telegram, meanwhile, is a proprietary closed-sourced software (only clients are free and open source) with attractive features, especially for large communities. It is offered by a UK-registered private company that operates from the United Arab Emirates. Telegram is failing to counter cryptocurrency pump-and-dump activities by spambots on its platform, which has been a major disadvantage in the recent past for groups on their platform.

We need to realize that “privacy can’t be assured without the source code being public”, i.e. we can’t verify the claims of any app about its privacy offerings unless all the source code is publicly available for scrutiny.”

#PublicCode #Privacy #SurveillanceCapitalism #FreeSoftware #Signal #WhatsApp #Telegram