Turns out WhatsApp might have sold its soul to the devil. Imagine a day that you write someone on WhatsApp, only to discover that the recipient is reading it on a Facebook Messenger site. It might not be that far into the dismal future. Note that, for now, WhatsApp does have end-to-end encryption. But as this article points out, Instagram does not — nor does it seem to be in the cards. And with Facebook, the user would have to activate (turn on a switch) for privacy. What percentage will remember to do that? Either way, if you ask us, WhatsApp was good while it lasted.
It’s time to take stock of WhatsApp.
I think the jury is still out on how this convergence will end up being tackled and what the privacy implications are. On the plus side, it is a move toward consolidating communications channels, which on the surface sounds like a great thing. Surely I’m not the one suffering from message fatigue as I bounce among SMS, email (multiple accounts), Messenger, WhatsApp, Threema, Instagram, Twitter, voicemail, etc. to keep up with people(!).
Also, this may not mean everyone should stop using WhatsApp. For ministry reasons, I maintain accounts on certain platforms because that is what those I am trying to reach are using. In such cases, it may mean that I continue to use WhatsApp (or whatever) and move my sensitive conversations over to another platform like Threema.
That said, this is a noteworthy development that we need to keep an eye on. Thanks for bringing attention to this, Doug!
you should switch from whats app to signal as it is much better https://www.signal.org/