Whatsapp With the Signal

For a while Whatsapp was a fantastic cross platform messaging tool for friends, families, groups and more. It was cross platform, fast and convenient. Eventually rather than rely on Facebook Messenger and Facebook, Facebook bought Whatsapp to consolidate its monopolistic grasp on the social web. As a result of this I tried to dump Whatsapp but it is hard to do so.

The reason for this is simple. Most people have not read Mindf*ck by Chris Whiley so for them it doesn’t matter that Facebook owns Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, Oculus Quest and more.

As Chris Whiley explored in his book with data it isn’t about reading individual messages. It is about using big data to prepare profiles, and with those profiles to establish who is easy to manipulate. In the Manufacturing of Consent, and his lectures Noam Chomsky explored headlines and how by studying we can tell what message governments and newspaper owners want to communicate.

With the social web, with Facebook as a key tool, the aim is to profile those that are easy to polarise, and motivate to vote for one party, rather than another, through manipulation. Read the book, and articles for a more in-depth exploration of the topic.

Although Whatsapp is seperate from Facebook it has been fined. Specifically “The Facebook-owned messaging app was hit with the fine — the highest ever fine for the company within the EU — for failing to live up to transparency requirements, including how it explains its use of people’s personal information, under Europe’s privacy rules.” An older article ordered Facebook to stop collecting user data.

Signal, in contrast is an open source alternative that provides better privacy. It is not owned by a Social media giant. Specifically, according to itself “Signal is an independent nonprofit. We’re not tied to any major tech companies, and we can never be acquired by one either. Development is supported by grants and donations from people like you”. I find Signal to be reliable, dependable and I like that it remains as a non-profit.

If you want to know more about Who Owns Signal you can read this article. For me it is important to use apps that are free and open source when possible. Many eyes will keep track of what they are up to and if they do something that people are concerned about attention will be brought to it.

For years I did not touch Whatsapp but recently, by participating in activities with others I have been forced back towards Whatsapp and I dislike it. I want people to jump towards signal so that we may have conversations that are less likely to be surveiled, and mined, to manipulate how we feel, what we think and more. Facebook, hiding behind the Meta mask should not have access to three billion peoples’ private conversations. That’s why I opt for Signal.