[sagher]

I'm located in Asia. Everyday I use Asia ISP, so if it's the case in yours then it should also appear in mine. But I don't get any policy asking for approval on my non-business account. It only appears in my business account twice (I don't explicitly accept both of them tho ).

None of my family also get the notification (notification = policy approval), all of them use non-business account. So I guess it's not just me, but everyone in my family don't get it. Only the business account.

So you are lucky in this case. because it is still a hot issue of our country and as CEO WhatsApp chapter describe that nothing can change in our policy everyone is now wait for coming month. however the truth is that WhatsApp and Facebook and even all other apps those got some extra permissions got all our data of smartphone already. just the difference is that they spy it in past but now explain it openly.

[deanhills]

@sagher  It's a hot issue every where, however like @tiwil  I haven't received any notifications .... yet .... from whatsapp.  

I'm a huge skeptic, and wonder whether this "issue" is presently being exploited big time by Telegram and Signal owners.  Like the herd mentality of getting to panic every one so they can move from WhatsApp to Telegram and Signal, without really needing to do so.

I'm glad the "scare" happened in a way, but common sense says that WhatsApp will try to do major damage control.  And will be careful to give its users a choice.  I've already seen that in official Web Notices from Whatsapp.

I've decided I'm not doing anything until I either receive a notification from WhatsApp that looks potentially damaging to me, or I receive any notifications from Facebook in my WhatsApp App.  I completely deleted Facebook links from my phone since 2016.  So if I should see Facebook come up in my WhatsApp, that will be the moment I will take decisive action.  But it should be action that is well thought through.

Bottom line, nothing is really FREE. And technically nothing is PRIVATE on the Internet - any one thinking that is living in a world of illusion. We had a very good ride with WhatsApp, until it was sold to Facebook a few years ago.  Since then we've been living on borrowed time.  Common sense tells me for places like Telegram and Signal to compete, once they've got the "panic" herds signed up with them and feel secure with their numbers, they will move in the same direction as Zuckerman wants WhatsApp to move with Facebook.  Everything is always in a mode of change, and always in the direction of greed, corruption and where money talks.

[Honey]

Many experts have recommended in the past, and reiterated now that there are other similar services like Signal/Telegram which are supposedly more safer than WhatsApp and also more feature-rich.

I myself partially moved from WhatsApp to Signal however most of my contacts still use WhatsApp so I simply cannot leave WhatsApp for now...I like the UI and features of Signal yet still miss the old WhatsApp UI.

To me It feels like WhatsApp is not a trustable service not because of all the data they're collecting, but all the data that they're collecting which we haven't been told about. Even though WhatsApp declares that our chats will remain secure/private and only our device data will be used, I can't see any way through which "device data" will help much with the ads..

A friend of mine even experienced this personally, he talked about a specific product in a whatsapp chat, and later he was getting ads of that specific product on facebook too..

[tiwil]

It seems that Whatsapp is postponing their new policy. Check https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/statu...8037935104 and https://twitter.com/pphida06/status/1350183314993381382.

Check this to see what Whatsapp says https://blog.whatsapp.com/giving-more-ti...ent-update. They give us 3 months more to review the new policy while they're going to clear the misinformation regarding the new policy.

Well I think they should do A/B testing with this new policy instead of pushing the new policy to every single users at the same time. Right now they already lose some of their users that moved to either Telegram or Signal. We'll see what Whatsapp movement in the future.

[sagher]

@sagher  It's a hot issue every where, however like @tiwil  I haven't received any notifications .... yet .... from whatsapp.  

I'm a huge skeptic, and wonder whether this "issue" is presently being exploited big time by Telegram and Signal owners.  Like the herd mentality of getting to panic every one so they can move from WhatsApp to Telegram and Signal, without really needing to do so.

I'm glad the "scare" happened in a way, but common sense says that WhatsApp will try to do major damage control.  And will be careful to give its users a choice.  I've already seen that in official Web Notices from Whatsapp.

I've decided I'm not doing anything until I either receive a notification from WhatsApp that looks potentially damaging to me, or I receive any notifications from Facebook in my WhatsApp App.  I completely deleted Facebook links from my phone since 2016.  So if I should see Facebook come up in my WhatsApp, that will be the moment I will take decisive action.  But it should be action that is well thought through.

Bottom line, nothing is really FREE. And technically nothing is PRIVATE on the Internet - any one thinking that is living in a world of illusion. We had a very good ride with WhatsApp, until it was sold to Facebook a few years ago.  Since then we've been living on borrowed time.  Common sense tells me for places like Telegram and Signal to compete, once they've got the "panic" herds signed up with them and feel secure with their numbers, they will move in the same direction as Zuckerman wants WhatsApp to move with Facebook.  Everything is always in a mode of change, and always in the direction of greed, corruption and where money talks.

Yes @deanhills:
I also ask this question that why the news is specifically mention Telegram & Signal. why only those two chat messengers. even many many other are available in market e.g. BB messenger is much safer. i am not sure about there current info but i use it in past. even many more other chat hubs. however i also fan of Telegram because of his some special features like 2GB video upload, able to run channel for info sharing. collect calls etc .. but these news also aware me as you said.
So if you like to be protected. turn off your Location service most probably. if you like to install any app which wants extra permissions then avoid to install it. like if you install any Tv channel app or any news app and they ask for your storage and location permission and your contact and log permission then it's on you to think about it why they need your contacts and log info and your location info as it is only a news broadcast platform. 
login on Facebook using your cell phone number is also not a safe way. use google or yahoo id for it. 
use a alternate sim card number if you need to register on any messenger.

[tryp4vps]

...... instead of enriching the owners of Telegram and Signal and just shifting the users from one evil to another one that may look "innocent" today, but get to growing into evil tomorrow the more users they get and the more pressure they get from their share holders to perform on the stocks exchange.

Yes but we do need more competitions right now.

I think this time we are just lucky. Still need to thanks to Telegram or Signal because if we do not have them, users would have no reasonable alternatives to move away and then could not give any pressure to Whatsapp at all.

[deanhills]

Yes but we do need more competitions right now.

I think this time we are just lucky. Still need to thanks to Telegram or Signal because if we do not have them, users would have no reasonable alternatives to move away and then could not give any pressure to Whatsapp at all.

Absolutely true @tryp4vps I'm unfamiliar with Signal, but I've heard amazing reviews about Telegram. While they are under their own management they should be OK, but look like the moment when something good is sold to a rogue shark like Zuckerman or Microsoft, then that app starts to deteriorate in the wrong direction.

I think WhatsApp will be OK for a while, while everyone is still panicking, but as soon as things get quiet I'm sure Zuckerman will start his moves again, and then hopefully I'll already be at an alternative like Telegram.

[tryp4vps]

..... I think WhatsApp will be OK for a while, while everyone is still panicking, but as soon as things get quiet I'm sure Zuckerman will start his moves again, and then hopefully I'll already be at an alternative like Telegram.

I also agree that Zuckerman will not give up. Sooner or later he will try to generate incomes from our personal data on Whatsapp.

I like Telegram a lot more, so I strongly suggest you to try it out if you have not done so. One good thing is that Telegram allows multiple accounts on the same device.

I have not tried Signal too, but I suppose as an alternative communication app, Telegram is already good enough for me.

[sagher]

I also agree that Zuckerman will not give up. Sooner or later he will try to generate incomes from our personal data on Whatsapp.

I like Telegram a lot more, so I strongly suggest you to try it out if you have not done so. One good thing is that Telegram allows multiple accounts on the same device.

I have not tried Signal too, but I suppose as an alternative communication app, Telegram is already good enough for me.

Yes @tryp4vps 
soon it will happens again. and again because everyone who use android/smartphone will be trapped and no personal life for him. who knows telegram and signal not got our personal info they also need same permissions like WhatsApp and Facebook. they also need your call log, contacts, location, storage, etc.. however anyone announced it or spy without announcement.

[tiwil]

..., but I've heard amazing reviews about Telegram.

I haven't checked if it's true or not. Someone stated that Telegram doesn't apply end-to-end encryption (E2EE) automatically, while Whatsapp does. This should be manually enabled by users in the settings, but I cannot find one in my app. Either E2EE is really automatically turned on or it just doesn't allow me to turn it on.

Telegram caught ISIS members that was using their services. They say all the communication was through Telegram. This shouldn't be possible if Telegram have E2EE (even though they claim it) since only each device can encrypt the message.