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  • Tech - News - Tech Companies
  • Updated: January 10, 2021

Signal Knocks Facebook, Promises No Ads

Signal Knocks Facebook, Promises No Ads

At the mention of the name "Signal" by the newly crowned world's richest man and owner of Di Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, the number of downloads of the app sky-rocketed.

Signal responded via its official Twitter handle: 

Signal, an encrypted messaging service has been the talk of the town ever since especially on social media platforms after WhatsApp updated its privacy policy and revealed more on its data-sharing policy with Facebook, thereby going against their initial promise years ago.

READ MORE: Elon Musk Urges Followers To Dump Facebook, WhatsApp For Signal App

Signal on Sunday took a dig at Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook over its data privacy policies by tweeting, “Facebook is probably more comfortable selling ads than buying them, but they'll do what they have to do in order to be the top result when some people search for 'Signal' in the App Store. P.S. There will never be ads in Signal, because your data belongs in your hands not ours.”

Apparently, Signal’s tweet is back on the heels of people seeking alternatives to Facebook-owned WhatsApp after it revised its privacy policy. This has led to a surge in downloads of Signal, which was created by Signal Foundation set up by former WhatsApp co-founder Brien Acton, who left WhatsApp in 2017.

WhatsApp last week rolled out in-app notifications to users about an update in its terms of service and privacy policy regarding how it processes user data and partners with Facebook to offer integrations across the social media giant's products.

The changes to WhatsApp’s terms and services that took effect from February 8 will allow it to share data with parent company Facebook Inc and users must agree to the new terms or lose access to their accounts at WhatsApp.

The latest update has received criticism from a multitude of users globally. However, WhatsApp said the update describes business communication and does not change its data-sharing practices with the social media giant. WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said the company updated its policy "to be transparent and to better describe optional people-to-business features".

Rival platforms like Signal and Telegram are reportedly seeing a surge in downloads in the wake of the development. “Even though we're still breaking records, verification codes are back in the groove. Delivery delays have been eliminated across multiple cellular providers, so things should be more ASAP when you join the app,” Signal wrote on Twitter. The post clearly implies more people are switching to the app.

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