Users of WhatsApp may soon touch 500 million in India but new privacy policy is cause of worry

WhatsApp and its new privacy policy, slated to go into effect from February 8 is causing users to look for alternative apps. The new terms of service require users to comply with updates that allow WhatsApp to process user data. It also involves how businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage WhatsApp chats. The messaging App has issued a statement saying that the new policy will in no way access personal chats and will solely be used for businesses. This has caused anxiety among people using the app.

WhatsApp was launched in India in mid-2010 and soon became the most popular messaging app in the country reaching 400 million users by mid-2019. The app may soon reach 500 million users in India and is still being used by people in the country despite the new privacy policies in place.

More than 95 per cent of WhatsApp's monthly active users in India use the app every day and almost all of its user base checks the app once a week, according to App Annie, a mobile insight firm.

Where traction is concerned, messaging apps like Signal and Telegram have witnessed nearly 4 million downloads in India since the pop-ups about WhatsApp's new terms of service started showing up for users when they open the app, according to Sensor Tower.

While Signal has seen 2.3 million new downloads between January 6 and January 10, Telegram has had 1.5 million new downloads during the same period. In the same period, WhatsApp's downloads fell by 35 per cent with 1.3 million new downloads between January 6 and 10.

Both Google and Facebook have invested in Jio Platforms and made multi-million dollar deals in the Mukesh Ambani-led company. Jio has 400 million subscribers in India. While Google has an ongoing deal to roll out Android-powered 2G smartphones in India in early 2021, Facebook works with Jio through the Jio Mart Platform which uses WhatsApp's payment method.