Explained| WhatsApp's New Update Raises Alarm, Here Are 11 Reasons Why Users Are Switching To Telegram

The updated privacy policy and terms of service of WhatsApp will come into force on February 8, 2021. Users will be required to accept the updates to continue using WhatsApp on their devices or their accounts will be deleted.

Representative Image

Earlier this week, WhatsApp began sending in-app notifications to users about changes to its policy and terms of service, indicating that user data would be shared with its parent company, Facebook.

WhatsApp's new Terms of Service and privacy policy, which will come into effect on February 8, has asked users to either accept the changes in its Terms of Service and privacy policy or their accounts will be deleted. The message suggests the key changes in how WhatsApp will collect and process users'  information going forward, and the partnership with Facebook, its parent company, as part of a larger unification drive between the family of apps.

However, some users have got the update on Whatsapp on January 8th, 2020.

After Whatsapp notified people about bringing the new update, people started raising questions about their data privacy.

The news has raised concerns about how much data Facebook will be able to access, given that the app now supports financial transactions and e-commerce. To be clear, WhatsApp’s policy has always said it shares information with Facebook. But the latest update has one significant difference. This isn’t the first time WhatsApp is facing privacy concerns. In 2019, it became a concern world over including in India, when it came to light that hackers were able to use the application to spy on targeted users using the spyware ‘Pegasus’. However, since 2016, WhatsApp has enabled end-to-end encryption, which means message and call content is not readable to WhatsApp.

How is the latest Whatsapp update different?

While the latest Whatsapp update has raised eyebrows, its last policy version from July 2020 and the earlier December 2019 version say: “As part of the Facebook family of companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, this family of companies. We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings.” However, both these policy versions had a section saying: “…you can choose not to have your WhatsApp account information shared with Facebook to improve your Facebook ads and products experiences. Existing users who accept our updated Terms and Privacy Policy will have an additional 30 days to make this choice by going to Settings > Account.” For the latest update, Whatsapp has removed the section where a user could opt out of the update. This has compelled the users to move to Telegram.

How is Telegram better than Whatsapp?

Unlimited Server Storage

Telegram provides unlimited storage. Means all your text messages, images media files & documents will be saved on their cloud. You can log out and log in any number of times from any number of devices simultaneously without losing any data, you don’t need to worry about backup & restore. You can view the active sessions and see on which devices are you logged in now. Thereby you can download any file any time anywhere

Media compression

Users can choose whether to compress the image and video or send the uncompressed version.

Group member number capacity

A normal group capacity in Telegram is 200. But when this is reached the Group transforms to a Super Group with a capacity of 5000. (A Super Group has some more features than a Normal Group)

Username feature

You can communicate with anyone on telegram even if you don't have the contact number of others. This ensures the privacy of the user’s contact number.

Channels

A channel is somewhat similar to groups, which can accommodate an unlimited number of members. The creator of the channel can decide who can post and other members can view the posts.

Multi-platform support

Telegram is available for Android, ios, windows phone, windows pc, Mac os, Linux os and even through any browser.

 Secret chat

Secret chat is a kind of end to end encrypted chat in which one can set self-destruct timer. The messages will be automatically deleted when the timer hits. It is possibly not able to hack in any way.

Bots

It is a piece of program which is based on AI and machine learning at a small level. It can perform various tasks. For example, an image bot can fetch images from the name. There are multiple types of bots. Popular bots are Image bot, sticker bot, gif bot.

Information groups

The telegram allows users to stay connected to different information and study groups.

Sends any kind of file

Users can send any kind of file through Telegram. Whatsapp limits video, images & document type files. This is not nice for advanced users.

Group administrator is the decision-maker

A Telegram channel creator operates as an administrator who can take decisions on which users can post and other members can view the posts on channels. Unlike WhatsApp which needs the mobile app to run, Telegram has independent apps for all platforms in the offering.